Trying to bring back the Gap

NEW YORK — Can the Gap be saved? The brand that helped lead America into a casual-clothing revolution has been foundering soullessly for years, beset by competition from stores such as Target and H&M, where people buy cheap chic as well as basics, and a denim market that's so saturated, there's no regaining the stronghold Gap once held.

Now Gap has a new head of design — Patrick Robinson, former artistic director for Paco Rabanne — and the company took the unusual step of presenting Robinson's first full collection during New York Fashion Week in February. Of course, the Gap has made previous forays into serious fashion, followed by a scurrying retreat to basic khakis and sweaters, something Robinson is all too aware of.

Before the presentation, he said that Gap "had been pulled from side to side for different reasons" and suffered from "different leadership and different messages." Brian Tunick, a retail analyst with J.P. Morgan, said the Gap's sheer size (1,278 stores in the U.S. and Canada) and its attempt to be all things to all people didn't help either.

"They became so big while everyone else was becoming so specialized," Tunick said. "And now they're trying to walk away from the teen customer ... and really go after that 25- to 35-year-old customer, which is what is in the stores right now. Although what's there is very basic, boring and safe."

Keeping those basics but banishing the boring and safe is what Gap hopes Robinson, who joined the label in May, can do. It is a balancing act that his predecessor from the fashion world — Pina Ferlisi, formerly with Marc by Marc Jacobs — wasn't able to achieve: Gap's North American stores saw sales decline in all but two years since fiscal 2000; this year, sales are down 5 percent from the same period last year.

While Robinson's name is familiar in the fashion realm, his track record with the masses is less clear. He is credited with turning around Giorgio Armani's Collezioni line; his work at Perry Ellis was a hit on the runway but not at the cash register; and his tenure at Paco Rabanne was complicated by corporate restructuring, and the house failed to ship his fall-winter collection. Most recently, his Go International collection of women's clothing and accessories for Target languished.

Robinson said the goal behind his fall/winter collection of layered classic pieces "was to take the classic, iconic heritage of the company and make it relevant by doing things (such as) slimming down the cargo pants, taking a peacoat and making it oversized or taking a Chesterfield jacket and shortening it into a bomber."

The collection has a ragamuffin-military vibe that squarely hits several of the season's trends. On the women's side were flared corduroy and denim pants that looked straight out of a Lenny Kravitz video, and slimmed-down and cropped cargo pants.

Tops and dresses were loose, with cute drop-waist dresses in faded plaids and airy, almost gauzy blouses. Outerwear included washed leather jackets and a short khaki trench.

For the men, in addition to khaki pants (slimmer-fitting, flat-front), there were suiting gray trousers, plaid-accented puffer vests, plaid button-front shirts, waffle-weave cardigans and a jersey sweater hoodie.

Robinson tweaked the long-sleeve Henley, turning it into a short sleeve, single-button tee that is destined to become a classic Gap piece. Accessories included chunky knit hats, plaid-accented scarves and Pierre Hardy for Gap combat boots (for him), jodhpur boots (for her) and desert boots (for both).

For now, the tough economic conditions could give the Gap a boost, as more customers are looking to stretch their wardrobe dollar by buying spiffy basics. And that black shearling jacket with an empire line has just enough style to fill (and pay) the bill.