Gap Design Editions

[I_bend_for_denim]

Hot Button Shirts
Gap teams up with Doo.Ri, Rodarte, Thakoon

Monday, April 02, 2007

(NEW YORK) Gap Inc. is the latest mass retailer to jump on the emerging designer collaboration bandwagon. The San Francisco-based retail giant, who’s currently actively searching for a new CEO, has enlisted 2006 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winners Doo-Ri Chung of Doo.Ri, Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte, and Thakoon’s Thakoon Panichgul to design a limited-edition collection of specially designed pieces that will be sold at Gap stores. While details remain mum, according to sources, each designer was given a white button down shirt with which to create their own unique design, for a total of three garments that will be manufactured and marketed as part Gap's upcoming white shirt campaign. Gap is in a newly-formed partnership with this year's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, having pledged a $1 million donation. As part of the unveiling, Vogue’s Virginia Smith and Meredith Melling Burke will host a party later this month at The Bowery Hotel.

Fashion Week Daily

[Meg]

ooh i'm really curious. It's an interesting mix of designers for Gap.I quite like the idea of pairing these two different brands together through the CFDA Emerging Talent Fund.

[Diorling]

Ooooo...looking forward to it.

[LostInNJ]

It's good to hear this...they def. need a boost.

[so_jealous]

^ no kidding. I don't think I've been in a Gap store for half a year.

[softgrey]

hmmm...thanks for the thread....
not sure what to think...white shirts bore me to tears...
hope they can make them interesting!...

[lucy92]

i think white tops are also boring. i also think that a lot of budget conscious folks dont even bother getting white tees or tops because they get trashed so quickly. i know i dont!

excerpt and pics from wwd.

Latest Designer Link: Gap Taps Young Talent
By David Moin and Rosemary Feitelberg
Despite plenty of woes, Gap insists it hasn't lost sight of talent, as it gives three new designers a big break.

"We are absolutely invested in emerging talent. Part of us has always been about celebrating young designers," said Marka Hansen, president of Gap North America, in an interview Tuesday. She elaborated on Gap's new limited edition collection for women called Gap Design Editions, which will be created by Doo-Ri Chung, Thakoon Panichgul and Rodarte's Kate and Laura Mulleavy.

Starting April 17, the collection will be sold in 100 larger Gap stores. It will be supported with advertising in The New York Times, Vogue, a WWD cover wrap, and store windows. It's a small step and one of many by Gap to help spruce up its tired image.

"We are being opportunistic," Hansen said. Asked if designers with bigger reputations might be recruited as guest creators, Hansen replied: "I would not rule out anything."

The project for these designers was simple — create white shirts, which the chain has been selling for 35 years. "It's the perfect iconic item," said Hansen.

The designers won't have their names on the products, but will appear in ads and in collateral materials making them readily identifiable to customers, Hansen said.

The project is an offshoot of Gap's partnership with the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund announced last month to introduce up-and-coming designers to a broader audience by arranging for winners to design limited edition pieces for Gap.

Last fall, Gap tapped Roland Mouret to create a capsule collection of dresses, but this newly announced quartet stands to have a broader reach, thanks in part to a print and outdoor advertising campaign featuring Stella Tennant, Liya Kebede and Carmen Kass, and shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. Clearly, the San Francisco-based chain is not skimping on talent even though Gap Design Editions, or GDE, will only retail from $68 to $88. Gap is said to have donated more than $1 million to the fund. Further fastening the connections among the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and the retailer is Vogue's May cover, which has a gatefold featuring all nine GDE styles.

In a statement Tuesday, Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour said, "Vogue has a long tradition of supporting young talent — in particular, our local talent — to secure a brilliant future for American fashion. And Gap's Design Editions project…will give a boost to the three CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winners, and bring their wonderful designs to a much bigger audience."

Ironically, last year's fashion fund winner Chung picked up J. Crew chairman (and former Gap honcho) Millard "Mickey" Drexler as a mentor, and she is developing a wedding dress for J. Crew. As for whether that alliance will lead to other J. Crew products, she said: "I hope so. We're talking about a lot of things….Mickey wants me to be huge, which is wonderful. I love his enthusiasm. He thinks I can do much more than I think I can." J. Crew executives couldn't be reached for comment. It's unclear how they will react to Chung's work at Gap, a competitor.

For now, Chung is eager to see her finished Gap products, including a Claire McCardell-inspired shirtdress. "Throughout history people have always tried to redesign the classic white shirt — that's what made it so exciting."

Having Gap's colossal production crew was another bonus. After creating her looks and handling an initial fitting, Chung didn't have to deal with the patternmaking, tucking, seaming and all the other painstaking tasks to which she usually has to attend. "It was nice to have someone else to take care of that part," she said. "It's important as a designer to see how different processes work. You can get so pigeonholed with what you do. I get tunnel vision — once I'm in the building, I don't leave. It's good to step away to see a different perspective."

While Chung is not actively searching for other collaborations, she said if a project was presented that was something she believed in, sounded fun and was not detracting from her signature collection for an extended period, she would consider it.

At Gap, Panichgul said he will be able to get his name out across the country. GDE also will be sold domestically online at gap.com. "This is more like a special project than a collaboration. A lot of people are interested in collaborations — I don't think it's going away. It's just evolving into different forms like this one….I'm open to anything."

Laura Mulleavy said she and her sister, Kate, welcome the exposure GDE will generate, but they are not in talks with other companies about similar alliances. "Kate and I really want to do things we believe in, and right now that's our label….The support in America for new designers and for people trying to build their businesses is probably more than in any other country."

News of Gap Design Editions, while generally welcomed by analysts, put the focus on other Gap issues and its turnaround efforts. "Such short-term design initiatives are positive indications of their intention to improve, but it will probably require at least two to three years of reexamination and re-engineering before Gap can reclaim some of its former status," said Arnold Aronson, managing director of retail strategies at Kurt Salmon Associates. "They must revision the business in terms of merchandise thrust, fashion sensibility, depth and breadth of assortments, size and number of stores."

"They need to define their market, which is what they are working on," said Mark Montagna, an analyst at C.L. King and Associates. "I believe they need to buy with greater breadth and less depth and run it more like the H&M and Forever 21 where you get faster fashion. Their strategy of buying deep and narrow just encourages customers to wait for the sales…Gap should be doing what H&M does — get a collection by someone like Madonna or Karl Lagerfeld. These are people America has heard of."

[fashionandstyle1]

^Ohhh I think I like the Rodarte top

[ilaughead]

I wish they were clearer pictures, but so far the shirts look great!

[Scott]

all three actually look quite cool! and for GAP that's saying alot. great of them to spot these guys to do this as well as i do think they're probably the most talented Americans being talked about at the moment. but i do think this is much more intriguing than what i've seen so far. i like the white shirt myself as a classic....and if anybody can re-interpret that in an interesting way,i love.

[markie]

I like them, especially the one on the left.

[I_bend_for_denim]

The tops are fab, they won't be sitting on the Gap shelves too long.
I just wish they weren't so fem. I was hoping to buy a top for myself.
*I'm a big fan of all 3 designers*

[cekla]

love the one from doo.ri
question is will they be sold outside the us?

[DosViolines]

nytimes

April 5, 2007
Front Row
Thinking Outside the Gap

By ERIC WILSON

FASHION is like sudoku. For designers, it’s a constant challenge of solving the same old problem. And for stores, it’s always a numbers game.

In recent years, Gap Inc. made a series of fashion goofs that spiraled into a mess of gloomy financials and management purges. For a chain that makes basic khakis and T-shirts its stock in trade, staying fresh has become an eternal puzzle. What, after all, can one do to liven up a basic white button-down shirt?

Actually, a lot. This month the Gap will introduce limited-edition shirts designed by Doo-Ri Chung, Thakoon Panichgul and Laura and Kate Mulleavy of Rodarte, all winners of a fashion contest organized by the Council of Fashion Designers of America and Vogue magazine.

The project is meant to promote the careers of emerging talent, though the Gap could stand to benefit from what could be described as the Target effect — the excitement of offering designer shirts for $68 to $88. Doo.Ri, Thakoon and Rodarte are labels with resonance among fashion followers, and their takes on the Gap classic, to those customers, will be interesting.

“It was a good challenge,” Mr. Panichgul said. “What I try to do in my collection is to add an interesting twist or a witty take on a classic, and that is what this project is about as well: to be able to breathe life into a shirt with fresh, new, witty ideas.”

Mr. Panichgul gave a patchwork effect to a shirt with ruffles, pin tucks and lantern sleeves; another he made into a shirtdress with a tiered skirt like the petal dresses of his signature collection. Ms. Chung’s versions included a more severe camp shirt and a full mumsy shirtdress. The Mulleavys prettied up the season’s trapeze shape with bow details.

Ms. Chung envisioned a camp shirt with a shawl of layered panels, but the effect ultimately had to be made with neat pleats. The Gap also had a stock pattern to make a shirtdress. But she split that pattern in half, added more volume and shortened the sleeves.

“It ended up looking very Claire McCardell,” she said, “which was not intentional, but I liked the way it looked.”

They may not be providing the Gap with all the answers, but at least they’re giving a clue.


Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin
NEXT CUSTOMER, PLEASE Part of the Thakoon collection at the Gap.

[Scott]

i really think doo.ri is really what this country has been looking for in a true ambassador to fashion. like claire mccardell i think unintentionally for that shirt to ultimately come out looking like something the legend would do says something about doo.ri's spirit of design.

but i think the shirts look great. i dunno why some of those are saying it's not going to help GAP. i think most of the people who follow fashion,know all about these three and i think it will help the GAP in a new way. i like this endeavour more because they are working on one piece and i think this will give the lines a bit more variety. i.e. a distinction within each piece. i think doing a full range would have ended up looking a bit same-y with each piece.