“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

You gotta love the Gap. Well, maybe not enough to buy anything for yourself, unless you are in a pinch, or in a mall while visiting your family. But for the way the Gap treats themselves like a serious fashion collection. The Gap showed their Spring ’11 looks in a bunker somewhere in London…très hip…and sure enough, WWD, Vogue and style.com were there to review it, like it was something other than the Gap. Granted, they have a great designer, Patrick Robinson. And surely, if he and a slew of assistants are putting together forty some odd looks, they will be groovy…styled to the nines. But it is still the Gap. And no matter what they do or where they go…it will still be the Gap. There is no way to properly translate that presentation, which was fiercely styled and fitted to the models’ bodies into the average store, like the one on 8th Avenue & 23rd Street. You can put all the blow ups of Alexandra Richards, and every young actor on Earth in the windows, but that look won’t walk out the door on a chubby human looking quite as fierce. I wish it did. The Gap should try doing a smaller collection with Patrick’s core updated basics and add a couple of seasonal designers for depth and layering, a la H & M or this Fast Fashion thing that Macy’s is currently concocting. What the Gap has that Macy’s doesn’t is that intimate specialty store experience, which to me is an invaluable asset. And by adding that extra layer of complimentary design aesthetics, they will automatically attract the consumers who like to mix things up. But what do I know?