Just Thinkin’ About Bath & Body Works!
Modern-day food and exercise and smells are sometimes too complicated, and they require pricey, mysterious components of health. My palate is pretty simple—I like things like too much cologne and smells that can be purchased for less than $15. (Sometimes I like things that smell expensive, too, but that isn’t what this is about.)
Bath & Body Works, the queen of seasonal smells, give us the ’90s sitcoms of scents. They are comforting, they are earth-toned, they make you feel like you should just sit down and relax for a bit.
“Our newest cozies” is the current section on Bath & Body’s online marketplace that invites us warmly with, “From frosty to toasty, it’s the wintry mix you’ve been waiting for.” Not much feels right in the world, so seasonal advertising is something girls like us can count on.
Bath & Body Works was founded just before the fall candle rush of September 1990, which means they—like me!—will be celebrating their 30th birthday next year. I can’t be sure, but I wonder if their new Gingham line—which, as Very Famous Friend Tom describes, smells exactly like ’90s mall strawberry—is maybe a quiet, knowing nod to their upcoming festivities.
There’s also a really beautiful Tumblr dedicated to the “Heartland” era of Bath & Body aka the country farmhouse ambiance the store had from about 1991-2002 with a sunburst logo, gingham aprons, and wooden barrels. Founded by a former Bath & Body employee, the red-gingham blog offers a history of the store and feels as much like a soothing country farmhouse as a website can feel.
“It was like being welcomed into someone’s cozy country home and being invited to stay awhile,” the blog’s founder writes. “But BBW was more than a cute store—it changed the way people took care of themselves. It introduced women to the concept of using shower gel with a bath pouf instead of a bar of soap, as well as using body splash instead of perfume.”
Though Bath & Body was birthed by a mall—the origin story is that it was a line of bath products at The Limited—the company created the character of “Kate” to make things warmer and relatable. Kate’s story was told to company employees to lend a mood to things.
The Heartland Tumblr founder writes that her old manager told her this:
Kate grew up on a farm in the Midwest and loved to make her own beauty products using the natural ingredients she found around the farm. She went to college and majored in biology so she could learn more about the beneficial properties of these natural ingredients. When she graduated, she decided to open up her own store to sell her homemade, natural beauty products.
A 1997 Annual Report said, “They talk in terms of a product’s ‘essential Kateness.’ Would Kate do it? No? OK. Don’t. It’s that easy.” Remember those forest-green body lotion lids? Pure Kate! Also forgoing magazine advertisements in favor of direct-to-consumer marketing.
There might not be wooden barrels and gingham aprons, but Bath & Body’s number-one emotional export is still coziness. Current candle scents include: PB&J, Blueberry Maple Pancakes, and Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin.
The spirit of Gingham—and maybe Kate and maybe malls—lives on!
August 31, 2023
In "Features"
