Minding the Gap, Tokyo-style
TOKYO — Everyone knows it’s not easy to please the Japanese market, with its fast forward thinking and demand for high-quality goods. It’s no different when it comes to a mainstream brand like The Gap. The Gap understands that the Japanese have seen almost everything, and the typical Japanese consumer is much more stylish than its Asian neighbors or others in the Western world.
Even the Gap flagship on Harajuku is bigger than your usual Gap store. Located on the corner of Harajuku’s most famous crossing (the intersection of Meiji-dori and Omotesando) the three-story building, plus basement, is a famous landmark for people meeting up at Tokyo’s hippest district.
I’m on a dream trip to Japan, invited by the Gap to witness their Spring/Summer 2010 fashion event. I’m staying at the Park Hyatt, Shinjuku, famous for being the backdrop of Sofia Coppola’s haunting movie, Lost In Translation.
We arrive on a Monday night, almost straight to a cocktail reception at the hotel’s New York Bar. Back at my room I find a welcome press kit inside a denim Gap tote bag. It includes a Gap scarf befitting the cool Tokyo weather, a Tokyo city guide and map, discount coupons to the Gap, and my favorite item, a bottle of their new fragrance called “Close,” simply because you have to get close to the person to smell it.
On Tuesday morning, there’s brunch with Gap’s head designer Patrick Robinson. In real life he’s cool and down to earth. I’m at a loss for more words, but people who have met the designer describe him as a “more charming version of Lenny Kravitz.”
A graduate of Parsons School of Design, Patrick worked for big names such as Giorgio Armani, Anne Klein, Perry Ellis, and Paco Rabanne, before joining the Gap in 2007.
It’s an exciting time in his career as he co-chairs next year’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala, with no less than Anna Wintour and Oprah Winfrey on board.
Today, Patrick’s wearing all-Gap, if you don’t count the shoes.
“I only wear Gap,” he begins. “Ever since the day I started working for Gap I’ve only worn Gap from head to toe — my socks, my undies, everything. I actually just redid the men’s underwear ‘cause I wear all the products all the time. Except for shoes, because we don’t do men’s shoes. Today I have on Paul Smith camping boots, because I love camping boots. I’m fanatic about them, I’m actually gonna buy two more. They’re amazing.”
Patrick says the biggest part of his job is to make sure that all product categories talk to people in a different way, in a way that they’re living their life today.
“Your life is about what’s going on today, it’s about your phone, about how you communicate, about how you travel, about the life you’re living. Gap is about having amazing, amazing casuals. It’s not about taking high fashion and bringing it down. Gap’s about making cool, cool relevant items that talk to you, about having the coolest jacket, the coolest piece of outerwear, about having things look more expensive than they are.”
Tonight we take a shuttle bus to Omotesando Hills, a shopping and apartment complex designed by Tadao Ando. The event is staged at third basement’s Space O, and what occurs is not your usual fashion show.
The 448-square-meter space is very spare with just a long white ramp in the middle and a Gap logo on one wall. Cocktails are served from one side and guests move freely to take photos, mingle or sit on white benches.
There’s no runway show. Instead, groups of models stand in casual poses dressed in head-to-toe Gap as a stylist puts finishing touches on her work. Being a stylist myself, I am simply in awe. Never have I seen Gap look like this, with layers of checks, stripes, florals, denims, whites and khakis, rendered in caps, hats, scarves, vests, overalls, roomy totes and long summer dresses that don’t clash but come together in a fresh country look that is still very Gap.
Patrick says the idea of wearing different patterns and checks is who he is. “If you look at what we show tonight, which is the global collection I worked on, you’ll see it very slanted towards the Japanese market. We make it way more fashionable here than anywhere else in the world, because the Japanese you see on the street is way more fashionable. I get inspired every time I come here. There’s a whole new different sophistication you see in Tokyo. It’s the same Gap all over the world but a different way it’s presented.”
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In the Philippines, Gap is exclusively distributed by Casual Clothing Specialists Inc.(CCSI), member of the Rustan’s Group of Companies, and is available at SM Mall of Asia, Shangri-La Plaza, TriNoma, Glorietta 4, Bonifacio High Street, Alabang Town Center, Robinsons Place Manila, the Atrium at SM Megamall.
