Dear Designers at GAP. Your boys collection is CRAP!

[QuintesentialShadows]

Dear Designers at Gap,
Did you know your collection is crap?

Year after year,
Skulls everywhere,
Do you really lack creative flair?

Skulls with a kite
Skulls eating tripe
Skulls on a bike

Is it all doom and gloom?
Are you celebrating the retail boom?
With snowboarding Death

You honestly need to take a hike
with this line and give it a
... Proper wreath

Viva what about plain block colours? I like t-shirts with animals, vehicles on but DS is only 2.

What I find most annoying about GAP is the number of things with GAP written on them. I don't want to advertise their stuff for them. A perfectly OK hoddie, ruined by having GAP on it - and these items are always in the sale so they can't be that popular.

I like Boden for boys, and Landsend has some nice stuff this year
Next has good trousers, but their tops vary a lot. H&M variable

casual sweaters - (even like the ones that are selling in Sainsburys at the moment a thin wool top with a 'inner collar type of thing') without any motif on them would be nice.

Again, I am at the moment concentrating on the 12- 16 age range as there is a big black hole as far as they are concerned. A lot of companies have ranges for this age in girls....

ViviPru I would love to see clothes with images on but without an slogan. For example a Bus or Car without "my red bus or broom broom" or a bear without " little brown bear, cuddly and cute". Also brighter colours, rather than navy, grey or dark green.
I would also like to see less 'trendy' clothes for younger boys, at the moment trying to get a normal pair of jeans for DS1 or DS2 is nearly impossible, they are all skinny, weirdly cuffed with bendy legs or half way down your leg ones.

Their designs were quite different 3 years ago. Before our move I used to shop for my boys there all the time. (Either Gap or Next). I loved the cycle motives, the music motives, the peace sign motives, but now they fit skulls into everywhere.

And yes, I find skulls pretty offensive!

My sons are 10 and 6.

My 10 year old said (about the Skull clothing) "Mum, I cant really wear any of this to school when we have uniform free days"

have a look - just bought DS1 (11) the tie-dyed swirly top and he loves it

notso - Sainsburys do good, cheap, normal jeans

YANBU - DS was 5 last year and I was after a fantastic pair of penguin red pyjamas. No - only skulls in horrid colours. I bought elsehwere. This year the same so I will buy elsewhere. Perhaps GAP are not aware there is a recession on?

I once received a survey phone call from someone who it appeared was doing market research for Gap. The American man on the other end of the line probably wished he had phoned any other number than mine! The conversation went something like this:-

How often in the past 12 months have you shopped in Gap?

• Never.

How often in the last 12 months have you shopped for jeans?

• Never.

How often in the last 12 months have you shopped for corduroy/linen/khaki pants?

• Never.

Well how often do you wear jeans/corduroy etc?
-Never. I don't like trousers. I don't wear trousers. I don't buy trousers.

Well... okay, but... well, let's move on. Do you have kids?
-Yes.

How often have you shopped in Baby Gap?
-Never.

Why haven't you shopped in Baby Gap?

• a) the children's dept. is invariably upstairs which is highly impractical with a buggy, b) I have never seen a single outfit in the window that made me want to dress my children in it c) they are overpriced.

This went on for nearly ten minutes... :D He absolutely could not believe anyone in the world might not want to dress like a Gap advert.

In our family telling people they look like a Gap advert is an insult, nobody else has figured it out yet though :) Actually, over here in the States I do quite like a few of their designs, I still don't shop there, but they are almost as good as Gymboree.

notso, funny you should say that about the slogan. I've been pushing for this for ages now as I think it cheapens the placement graphic. Whenever I submit one without though, I'm told to add one.

We swing back and forth with skulls, when I first started with a particular retailer, they were a no-no, now, we're being told to include them again. I'm supposed to make the skulls look 'happy'

MNHQ - disclaimer, regular poster here, not canvassing, just stumbled across this thread. I don't work for Gap.

notso - I think you would like Boden, if you haven't checked it out already ....

Vivi - have a look at the Landsend link I gave above. I think their range is good, especially the range of interesting colours

Will do Jamie. We don't tend to reference them. Boden on the other hand... (if I hear how would BODEN do it? one more time I'll scream)

Incidentally, I have a meeting tomorrow with the head of design at one of the biggest childrenswear retailers in Europe. She will be looking for some insight into what the market wants.

Nows your chance ladies - hit me with it.

you are so not being unreasonable
it's so bad
I used to love the toddler stuff, 2 or 3 years ago
It's so drab now, and really not very well made

I like scenes from sport or exercise, or music. But these days, there are only skeletons cycling, or playing drums. It looks stupid.

look here. only One skull in the entire collection

no skulls. Boys under 6
and
sudden appearance of skulls. Boys over 6 But these designs would have worked equally well without the skulls.

ViviPru, why happy skulls? I think a happy looking skull is just ridiculous. They are asking the impossible of you....

I want more bright, fun colours for girls and less boring, simpery, peachy-pink. Also designs like animals etc and not princessy shite.

Can't really speak for boys as i dont have one but if i did i'd probably still want bright, fun things and less sludgy colours. Also what's with cars and fire angines and stuff on newborn baby clothes? it's a bit weird.

i originally came in to post about the Gay Ans Proud thing. Glad i'm on the same intellectual level there are somebody's teenage son.

YANBU. I am really struggling for DS1, age 6, in age 9 clothes (partly cos he is large, partly because he is a wheelchair user and bigger tops are easier to put on/ needs longer legs cos sitting).
I want Next to do plus fit in more of their trousers, not just jeans. Tops- I'm really struggling. I want casual, comfy, no bloody skulls. Have tried Next, Gap, Sainsburys, Tescos. Haven't found anything. Have tried brands like quiksilver, fat face, joules, found stuff i like but its all too slim fitting in the body :-( to be comfy for him.

Well - I like the fact that Next does a big variety of trousers, most (all?) with adjustable waists, and does a slim fit (DS1 is a slim-Jim). Some of their trousers are also lined, which goes down well with my boys

I like a strong graphic - like last Summer Boden had Ts with a large RAF-type bullseye, or a Union-Jack guitar shape - sort of referencing a Mod look.

I like the colours Landsend does

I don't like tacky shit like Supermario or Spongebob on a T-shirt (although the DSs disagree)

Reinforced knees on trousers would be good

will think more ...

Nice and bright colours. Not drab dark maroons and dark greens.

Grandfather undershirt style. In grey marl. Slim fit, and with 3-4 discrete buttons. Rib nit cotton.

Higher percentage of actual wool in the knitwear, to make it warmer. I am happy to pay more for quality nit wear for kids. I am sick of polyester knitwear, and cotton cable knit.

Skulls listening to music, or playing electric quitar makes me squirm!

Nice blues, with snowboarding cartoons or kids.

Imagine a snowboarding cool cat! or wolf!

They are rubbish for girls' stuff atm, too. There may be a lot of it, but it is all pink and fussy. FGS, girls like to run about and get muddy too, and there ARE other colours than pink- how about making a tenth of the stuff pink, and trying out yellow, green, red, orange, blue and all the OTHER colours.

Also, and this really makes me cross, girls need warm coats and thick warm trousers too. The boys get nice thick shirts and coats, the girls get flimsy sparkly stuff that isn't even vaguely warm. When DD is in her teens, she may want to go about in winter wearing short skirts, heels and not much else, but that's certainly not how I want to dress her as a toddler

I know, its because they're aware that mums aren't keen on menacing looking skulls. I once spent a whole morning trying to make a skull look each time it was like "Nah not happy enough. More happy"

Imagine trying to put a smile on a skull... No. You can't.

Good links, those, OP

Oooh - I'd like to be able to buy pyjama tops and bottoms separately, and have also noticed that pyjama tops tend (in places like Sainsburys/Next) to be too short. They shrink and are too small quite quickly

I hear you, lisianthus, but try telling a commercial director who is seeing pink=best sales figures that you'd like to try adding more blue into the girls range...

But to buy separately and being a completely different design? Really?

Ted baker does some lovely boys stuff, all bright colours which is quite rare! Some of the stuff can be a bit much with baker splashed all over it, but generally there's enough choice to avoid that. Ds actually has a blue skull body warmer from gap (given to him as an Xmas present last year) it looks really smart and has washed well, but I think one 'skull' item is enough for his wardrobe.

There is lots you can design for boys in any age group - I have been designing and getting kids clothes made up for 10 years now. My conclusion - all the mums ask for it, but when you have it, they don't want to spend the money on the boys - its not that they don't like it cos when its on sale, they buy it all.
I started out designing mainly for boys ( and I don't do skulls, guns or anything violent ) and then did a few bits for girls. I sell 5 girls items to every boys thing - its fascinating.
However I have to say that as a very small enterprise, its really hard to have a large range and its near impossible to have those chunky jeans like gap has.
My biggest success was the interesting colours of soft linen shirts and bermudas... even then though you always hear ( oh my boy always wears the same shorts and t-shirt and he gets them all dirty so I don't want to spend money on them - I get it all at tesco. )

So ! I now design exclusively for girls ... except for the cotton pyjamas.
In answer to ViPru.... just take any theme of something a boy likes and expand on that. Just take for example, sea creatures and do that for every age group. Then develop that using interesting styles/ art methods. Its limitless. And yet, they all do skulls. Go figure.