Gap is popping the lights again on in its London flagship.
After it closed all its UK areas in a broad restructuring in 2021, the American model is reopening its retailer in London’s Covent Garden neighbourhood on Friday. The new store is one in every of three deliberate: Another in Wembley and one within the Westfield purchasing centre in White City open their doorways in December.
The house in Covent Garden has sat dormant since Gap closed the shop, and is often papered over with Gap promoting. The firm owns the constructing, and since it didn’t have to pay tax on the situation if it wasn’t working or leasing it, it selected to preserve it shut till it was prepared to return, in accordance to Mark Breitbard, president and chief government of the Gap model. Now it’s.
“We’ve just gone through so much of the reinvention and revitalisation of the brand, and we’ve come through to the momentum side,” Breitbard stated.
Gap has been within the midst of a multi-year turnaround that started to present outcomes after dad or mum firm Gap Inc., which additionally owns Old Navy, Banana Republic and Athleta, employed former Mattel government Richard Dickson to revive the long-struggling label. It tapped designer Zac Posen to rework its garments; has amped up its collaborations and advertising and marketing, scoring a giant win with its viral Katseye marketing campaign; and launched a brand new upscale line, GapStudio.
The efforts are paying off. In August, the Gap model reported its seventh consecutive quarter of constructive comparable gross sales.
“The store has been the last part — to get the physical experience to feel like it has caught up to the rest of the brand,” Breitbard stated.
The 3,250 sq. foot, two-story London location relies on the design blueprint Gap unveiled in its Flatiron retailer in New York final 12 months. Rails lining the entrance of the shop let Gap show clothes on hangers somewhat than having stacks of folded clothes, which Breitbard stated creates a extra elevated really feel and helps showcase the improved high quality of the gadgets. There are giant screens round to show movies, and in direction of the again stretch cabinets of denim in an array of various matches.
Upstairs, there’s a nook that Gap tried to give a extra distinctly British really feel, with a barely dressier providing. On the far aspect of the ground, a wall is crammed with one in every of Gap’s most recognisable gadgets, its hoodies. There’s additionally an space the place Gap sells information from London music store Honest Jon’s, a nod to Gap’s unique retailer in San Francisco, the place it bought information and denim.
The house embodies the unfussy, nostalgic vibe of the Gap model in the present day.
Gap hasn’t been completely absent from the UK since closing its shops. It has continued to promote on-line and maintains a nook within the Oxford Street location of British retailer Next, with which Gap has a three way partnership and which runs Gap’s back-end UK operations, equivalent to its logistics and stock administration.
The return to bodily retail in London marks a milestone for the model as it really works to rebuild its enterprise, and whereas Breitbard stated Gap’s resurgence has its roots within the US — its house market and the place it does most of its gross sales — it doesn’t finish there.
“What we see happening is happening globally,” he stated. “When we look at the momentum story and the revitalisation story, it’s not just in North America.”