The End of an Era

For the first time since it's founding in 1969, The Gap has a new logo (What did Helvetica ever do to them?)

The San Francisco-based company has produced some of the most memorable and influential advertising campaigns of the past few decades, creating their own vocabulary of style. My Top 5 Gap moments:



5) The current Black Magic campaign; this is what The Gap does best, recycle shopworn ideas to seem fresh and accessible. I already own a dozen pairs of black pants, but damnit if this spread didn't make me want to throw one of 'em on and go oogle the far hipper versions hanging in The Gap.


4) Fall 2004 "How Do You Wear It?" campaign.

Fresh off SATC success, only SJP could make simple blue jeans

seem cool, covetable, and Manolo-worthy to the fashionista set.


3) Synergy - music and fashion (think of the "Everyone in Leather" campaign set to Depeche Mode or the more recent Love Train holiday series). You could count on the appropriate compilation CD playing instore too, just in case you needed more sensory cues in the changing room.


2) "Individuals of Style" (since 1988) campaign combined some of the world's most famous faces with esteemed editorial and fashion photographers. Kudos to The Gap for often using controversial or notoriously reclusive celebrities.

(Herb Ritts photographs K.D. Lang, from the coffee table book Individuals)



1) 1997 khakis with soul (spcifically, Khaki Swing doing jitterbug to Jump Jive & Wail)