Gap Concept Store
We celebrated Gap’s heritage with a whole host of creative content and collaborations.
Gap turned its Covent Garden store into a concept space in order to celebrate its heritage in conjunction with the launch of a ‘90s reissue collection.
Gap wanted to highlight key moments that represented milestones in their history, as well as cultural phenomenon that they had been part of over the years. We were asked to help them do this by curating the new space and filling it with content that could bring to life aspects of Gap’s heritage in an fresh and engaging way.
We commissioned a film, denim patches by illustrator Tim Lahan, T-Shirt designs, inspirational events and a collaboration with up and coming New York fashion label Landlord. The creative focussed on three key eras in Gap’s history - 1969 (when the first store opened), the ‘90s and Present Day - each of which featured iconic product and advertising, as well as important milestones in Gap’s story.
The content would be in the space for a period of 6 weeks, as well as across social channels, so we created a wide and diverse range of content, ensuring that customers always had something exciting to see when they came to the store.
Designer Collaboration Gap have always prided themselves on the inspiration they have been to young designers, so to help celebrate this in the concept space we partnered with an up-and-coming designer on a limited edition capsule collection.
It was important to us that we found a collaborator that had a genuine connection to the brand. New York label Landlord’s first collection was heavily inspired by ‘90s Gap, and so were the perfect choice. Designer Ryohei Kawanishi loved the ‘90s Gap Khaki and wanted to rework them in his own style.
Landlord also produced bespoke embroidered hoodies, and printed T-Shirts all celebrating the classic ‘90s Khaki. This was an exciting opportunity for Gap to re-establish their connection to the fashion world and show their historic influence. Produced in very limited number, the unisex capsule collection was available to buy in store.
Patches We commissioned a series of patches by New York based illustrator Tim Lahan, again themed around 1969, the 90s and present day. The patches were inspired by cultural events, iconic colours and imagery that really typified the aesthetic of those times. The patches were available for customisation on Gap denim in store.
In-store Events We commissioned 7 expert speakers from different fields to talk about three subjects close to Gap’s heart. This took place at three in store events during the six weeks, and were designed to bring some of Gap’s values to life through education.
The first event featured fashion historian Amber Butchart and Ashleigh Kane from Dazed magazine, who spoke about the relationship between fashion and culture. Next was a panel discussion between Liv Little, founder of Gal-Dem, Danielle Pender, founder of Riposte, Kai Lutterodt, founder of Diversity Matters, and Mobbie Nazir, head strategist at We Are Social, who discussed diversity in the creative industries. Finally Story MFG spoke about their denim craft and the processes they use. The invitation only events were attended by students and young creatives, and were streamed live on Gap’s facebook page.
T-shirts Taking a more playful look at Gap’s history we designed a series of T-Shirt prints which featured well known phrases and slang from the three key eras. Each phrase was written in Gap’s iconic varsity lettering, making it a fun and collectible way to look at their heritage.
Anyways understood the objectives from the off and helped us create an overarching concept to support both the launch and subsequent six week expression of the I am Gap store in Covent Garden. They created multiple and compelling ways to communicate with our customer both physically and through social.
Senior Director at Gap
Companies
Gap International
- Non Creative Industries