"Point one for Gap: no one needed to be told what was meant by "Gap hoodie." If I said J.Crew rollneck, half my time would be spent explaining the garment and its relevance. That's a data point. The second and more revelatory point in favor of Gap was a point put forward by a coworker: It's already iconic, and you just can't see it because it's too familiar."
"That made me think back to the French exchange students that came to my town as a kid. They had two things they wanted to buy from America, energy drinks (governed more strictly than alcohol over there) and Gap hoodies. To them a Gap hoodie and hanging out at the malllike they do in the movieswere the pinnacle of the American exchange experience."
Gap declared October 15 as International Hoodie Day to mark the hoodie’s 30th birthday. The term "Gap hoodie" is instantly recognizable without explanation, unlike other brand-specific garments. A coworker suggested the hoodie is iconic but visually invisible due to overfamiliarity. French exchange students prioritized Gap hoodies and energy drinks as quintessential American purchases and mall culture symbols. The Gap archive beneath Tribeca headquarters holds a sprawling, recently assembled collection that began with an employee vintage competition and grew to thousands of Gap and Banana Republic pieces for the New York design team. Sean Wotherspoon curates global vintage. Gap merchandising leadership says the hoodie has never been bigger.
Read at www.esquire.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]