The Gap gets a redesign

[kimair]

from wwd..

The Gap brand debuts a prototype today in seven Denver locations (for more on the prototype, see accompanying story). “We consider this the expression of our store of the future,” Paul Pressler, president and chief executive officer, said at the company’s first analysts’ day in San Francisco on Thursday.

Also, Pressler announced that its fourth brand, which will appeal to Boomer women aged 35 and older, will be called Forth & Towne and will open four stores in Chicago and one in New York next fall. Each store will be 8,000 to 10,000 square feet, offer a broad range of styles, with price points below traditional department stores and somewhere between Gap and Banana Republic. While the name tries to evoke a sense of place, the inspiration for the concept comes from the old grand dame department store flagships of bygone eras, with high service standards and lots of selection.

With its historically huge emphasis on sportswear, the company plans to devote greater space to petites, handbags, jewelry and personal care at Banana Republic, which expects to have five freestanding petite units by the end of this year.

 

[kimair]

more on the new store design

The changes are significant. First, there’s a sharper delineation of the genders, including separate entrances into the women’s and men’s departments, both framed in Gap’s signature blue.

For further shopping ease, merchandise is subdivided into a gallery of shops, each roughly 250 to 300 square feet and extending about two thirds of the way through the store. They’re organized by occasion dressing, so for example, there are shops for clothes to wear to work, seasonal accessories, men’s summer weekend “fundamentals,” and premium denims and striped shirts for evenings out.

Denim is in the rear, occupying about 30 percent of the space, and includes shelving units densely packed with product next to the fitting rooms for quick access by the salesclerks. There is also a long denim table and a seating area, creating a residential atmosphere.

“The art gallery metaphor really carried us. Product is truly the art,” said Christopher Hufnagel, vice president, Gap brand store experience, during an exclusive tour of a prototype in the Park Meadows Mall, in Littleton, Colo., just outside Denver. The remodeled 6,500-square-foot unit devotes 60 percent of the space to women’s, 40 percent to men’s.

Compared with the cold, laminated and wide-open look of current stores, where men’s and women’s tend to bleed together, there’s a warmer, woodsy atmosphere with timeless hickory fixtures, terrazzo marble tile and dark oak floors, and 26 custom-sculpted mannequins in four poses. Like a gallery, it has directed, 8-degree track lighting for controlled illumination on key items and outfits.

Fitting rooms have carpeting, dimmers, lights to signal associates for help, a lounge area, and chalkboards so associates can write down a customer’s name for a personal touch. Also, the cash wraps have been redesigned with individual work stations for each associate, so they don’t bump into each other scrambling for shopping bags, boxes or telephones.

Later this year, stores in the Hartford and San Diego markets will be converted, and stores in another five to 10 markets will be overhauled in 2006, albeit there will be tweaking of the design over time as feedback comes in. Certain locations slated for remodeling due to landlord agreements will also be converted, including the unit on 59th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan later this year.

The prototype has been in development for 13 months, including a 24-day world tour by the Gap team visiting other stores, restaurants, theme parks and museums for ideas and inspiration, and bringing back 4,000 photos of Selfridges, Disney parks, Prada, and other stops on the route.

“We really began to dissect the components of what made for a great customer experience,” said Hufnagel. A big realization was that men and women should be serviced differently, even in a big chain, and that men are on “more of a procurement mission,” whereas women want shopping to be a social experience where the merchandise changes often and there’s a greater sense of discovery, Hufnagel explained. “You can’t be quite so conceptual with men, whereas with women you can be more emotional.”

The seven prototypes, which were closed for remodeling since January, are in Aspen Grove, Littleton, Chapel Hill, Colorado Springs, Cherry Creek, Denver, and Broomfield.

you'd think they would do one of the stores in sf, since the headquarters is here...

 

[travolta]

this inspires me to open a nikegoddess store thread....thanks for posting

 

[cloud9]

gap keeps getting better huh?

 

[travolta]

hm, sounds like some nice changes. i like the gallery of shops organized into occasion dressing...i think ikea was pretty successful in a similar idea of displaying their products..and will obviously leave a greater impression on the consumer. i think it comes down to dressing room lighting...i think BR and some GAP stores are pretty successful in this.

 

[em 692]

The Gap store designs and layouts now are kind of plain compared to other stores, but I think this new design looks great, but still keeps the Gap's atmosphere and style.

 

[Angyl]

Maybe I should start shopping at the Gap....I just hate owning things that 90 million other people have.

 

[TheSoCalledPrep]

No, no, no! The classic plainness of Gap makes me love it so much..

 

[Diorling]

I got so excited. I thought they got some new designers, cause thier sale rack is a good 50% of the store now.

 

[fashionyork]

Im with you Prep.

Their plainess and basic stuff its what is appealing for me. You have to mix with other stuff and ad some flair in my opinion. But I see Gap stuff as a blank canvas

thanks for the topic kimair!

 

[As You Like It]

Meh. I've been consistently underwhelmed by GAP since I first became aware of them about 15 years ago, and they still bore me to tears

Already 30-somethings shop at GAP and Banana Republic a lot. I think I may be the only office-lackey in the lower 48 who doesn't own a pair of GAP khakis.

 

[softgrey]

hmm...
i don't know if i like this...
but i'm certainly curious and also interested to see this new brand...
'forthe and town'...

thanks for the info kimair...

 

[adorevintage]

I love GAP for all their basics, I recently purchased an eyelet bolero and linene blazer that I now wear with everything :-)

 

[snowqueen]

the gap shop confuses me so much i know people who have gotten great clothes from there b ut i can never find any thing i like and the only iitem ive ever bought from there is pj's (christmas fleacey 1's, so cute )

 

[*Happiness*]

I've always liked the GAP for its basics. They have some very nice things....and they seem to last.

 

[adn]

its about time!

 

[fashionista-ta]

here's another article from slate.com ...

I thought this article really missed the boat because the author didn't get what fitting on a model in the target age group was all about. I have commented elsewhere here about how Gap clothes don't fit me ... maybe these will. I have always said that Gap cuts for a girl's, not a woman's, body.

I also found the stat about 70% of women over 35 being a size 12 or larger fascinating! Woohoo I'm doing great--I'm in the 30%!!!

Forth & Towne
Are Gap's new clothes for boomers any good?
By Julia Turner
Posted Monday, Oct. 17, 2005, at 1:11 PM PT



Forth & Towne, the new store from Gap Inc., was born of a statistic. The company—which also owns the Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic—sells clothes to about 8 percent of women under 35. But it reaches only 3 percent of "older" women: that is, women 35 and over. And so it has created Forth & Towne with the intent of luring in this demographic.
Women over age 35 are, in the words of Forth & Towne's president, Gary Muto, "underserved." They have more income than younger women, but fewer places to shop. For most middle-aged women, the mall is a barren wasteland: Apart from Eileen Fisher, which peddles roomy clothes in natural fibers, and Chico's, which sells ethnic print sweater-coats and the like, it's just tumbleweeds rolling through the food court. As a result, many women in this demographic are forced to comb through the racks at department stores or pore over catalogs like Coldwater Creek and J. Jill. For women in this age group, shopping can be a time-consuming (and, at times, frustrating) cobbling together of bits and pieces from various sources.
As a business idea, then, Forth & Towne makes sense. As a fashion concept, though, it raises a few questions. For starters: Who are these "women over 35"? It's a group both enormous and diverse. It includes Sarah Jessica Parker and Madeleine Albright, Anna Wintour and Oprah Winfrey, Mrs. Robinson and Miss Havisham. It includes both my elegant 59-year-old mother, who scours department stores and discount chains like Loehmann's for classic suits, and her chic 44-year-old sister, who recently devised a way to wear an Hermès scarf as a shirt.

How does Forth & Towne intend to appeal to all these women? To find out, I drove to West Nyack, N.Y., where one of the first outposts opened in August, to take a look at the clothes.

(There's a slide show if you're interested ... includes an interesting jacket design.)

 

[alwaysacitygirl]

The new setup looks cute. I'd like to see it once it gets to NY

 

[bagsnthings]

I thought this article really missed the boat because the author didn't get what fitting on a model in the target age group was all about. I have commented elsewhere here about how Gap clothes don't fit me ... maybe these will. I have always said that Gap cuts for a girl's, not a woman's, body.

I also found the stat about 70% of women over 35 being a size 12 or larger fascinating! Woohoo I'm doing great--I'm in the 30%!!!

Forth & Towne
Are Gap's new clothes for boomers any good?
As a business idea, then, Forth & Towne makes sense. As a fashion concept, though, it raises a few questions. For starters: Who are these "women over 35"? It's a group both enormous and diverse. It includes Sarah Jessica Parker and Madeleine Albright, Anna Wintour and Oprah Winfrey, Mrs. Robinson and Miss Havisham. It includes both my elegant 59-year-old mother, who scours department stores and discount chains like Loehmann's for classic suits, and her chic 44-year-old sister, who recently devised a way to wear an Hermès scarf as a shirt.

How does Forth & Towne intend to appeal to all these women? To find out, I drove to West Nyack, N.Y., where one of the first outposts opened in August, to take a look at the clothes.

(There's a slide show if you're interested ... includes an interesting jacket design.)

Well, I guess I'm in their demographics (41), however I will taking a look-and-see attitude because I don't like the cut of Misses clothing, its too big for me and I love classic but chic and stylist clothing. I would be the person described in the excerpt as the "chic sister who recently devised a way to wear an Hermes scarf as a shirt". I took a look through the slideshow, what I saw of the sample designs so far, I did not like.

I hope they also realize that this line will need to carry petites as well, not everybody needs a generous cut in clothing after age 40. Sara Jessica Parker and Demi Moore are just two examples of defining the "new 40".

 

[fashionista-ta]

Well, I guess I'm in their demographics (41), however I will taking a look-and-see attitude because I don't like the cut of Misses clothing, its too big for me and I love classic but chic and stylist clothing. I would be the person described in the excerpt as the "chic sister who recently devised a way to wear an Hermes scarf as a shirt". I took a look through the slideshow, what I saw of the sample designs so far, I did not like.

I hope they also realize that this line will need to carry petites as well, not everybody needs a generous cut in clothing after age 40. Sara Jessica Parker and Demi Moore are just two examples of defining the "new 40".

Well as we all know, SJP wears regular Gap