GAP 1969 LOS ANGELES DESIGN STUDIO
I’ve been working on a re-branding project with a heritage denim company this week and it has put me in a denim state of mind. I’m intrigued by re-branding, especially by old brands that have established their name in the denim world for sometime.
I am a huge fan of chic wearable denim and always say The Gap is doing a tremendous job in bringing quality denim at a reasonable price point. For the past few years, I’ve witnessed the changes of Gap denim under Patrick Robinson’s guidance. Now that he’s gone, Iwas curious to see how The Gap would continue to carry on its successful campaign of modernizing denim. The immediate answer seems to be social media, and it’s looking good.
Gap rolled out it’s 1969 Fall denim social media campaign recently and it aims at revealing a more behind-the-scene view at the Gap denim design process. Turns out although the company’s headquarter’s are based in San Francisco, the 1969 denim is designed in a Gap studio in downtown LA. It is a little known fact and the whole online campaign focuses on introducing this studio as well as its team members, emphasizing Los Angeles as the “last stronghold for denim” in America, which is entirely true.
You can go to facebook.com/gap (or simply click on the above picture) to watch a series of videos of the space, the designers, the merchant, and the key fits for Fall.
I recently got a chance to visit the studio and was impressed with the authenticity and the energy of it. It’s an open loft with no walls separating offices but yet the team is very much compartmentalized stretching from design/pattern-making, to samples, merchants, to marketing – a one stop shop set-up.
The success of this campaign lies in creating a connection between the wearer to the design process. After viewing this website, customers now can visualize the process of where his/her denim came about, it is no longer just a pair of jeans, and this is where Gap is no longer just The Gap.
