Gap & J Crew in trouble

[FrugalFashionista]

Reading fashion / business news - these are tough times for midrange brands...

Gap

J Crew

Want2B - I recognise you from the Living in America threads. Totally agree re Gap children's sizing. I bought t-shirts for my DC, aged 3 and 1, this weekend. DD's age 5 t-shirt was exactly the same size as DS's age 3 t-shirt, and I had to buy two years up for both of them... I only buy Gap stuff in the sales as it's not worth the price any more due to quality. Agree with a PP, H&M does now have some stuff that is better quality. That wouldn't have happened 10 years ago. J Crew here in the US is way cheaper than the UK, though they shoot themselves in the foot with their outlets sometimes. I got a dress that was still on sale for $170 for $30 in an outlet the other day. Not quite the profit of dreams...

"No Gap outside London is rubbish."

Yes it is. I was referring to Uniqlo.

No- the children' clothing has really gone downhill. Too pastelly- princess crap now. With writing all over the tops.

And the fabrics are very thin, not like the lovely heavyweight pique polo shirts they used to do.

Hi wibbly! H&M and Zara are places that just don't have anything in them that looks ok on me.

JCrew outlets has always been poor for me. They put lower quality stuff in there a lot of the time. I found it better to buy on sale from their midtown store because no one is a US 10/12 in Manhattan!

yamaha Yes those darn pastel colours are awful. The thin material is helpful here as its very hot. Their winter tshirt are much thicker.

I can not remember the last time I bought anything in gap - agree the stores look like jumble sales.

I do like j crew - in fact had on an old j crew dress and denim jacket yesterday. But have bought very little from there in the last 12 months even with codes which does make it more affordable.

I read a while back that there is a lot of bad feeling about Jenna Lyons and the direction she has taken the store in but it was the head of womenswear who has been fired. I bet it won't be long until Jenna moves onto other things.

I do think too many of the high street stores are trying to charge 'designer' prices - LK Bennett and Whistles to name two.

No uniqko outside London. Not gap

Lol at old navy is unremarkable. Yet you're remarking on it.

I'm sure I was in jcrew regent St recently. Has it gone?

The executive creative director also touched on the issue of higher prices in the UK. "There is always a dialogue about price: There are import taxes and duties, and the higher cost of doing business in London. "But it's not our game to inflate prices for no reason," she explained. "We want our customers to feel comfortable, and for them to know that we are a trustworthy company."

No,it is still there.

Good morning cb

Morning - aren't we the early birds

Poor old son has terrible cold. Sneezing all night. Woke us up

I only wear gap tees. They have an extensive tall range. But I've noticed the quality slipping and am looking for alternatives. BR always looks positively matronly when I try it on.

IMO the problem with Gap is that they are trying to do too much, and most of it is shit. For example, too many different styles of dresses that no-one will buy. They should go back to good quality basics (vest maxis, shift dresses, shirt dresses etc.)

This for example - they are hardly going to sell loads of these

we had a uniqlo for about a year, this was 10yrs or so ago. then it closed and now it seems to be popular.

I love gap boys, ds lives in it. tend to stock up in sales though.

As for JCrew. Well who is going to pay £88 for this?

Gap jeans are the best. I used to get a lot of other stuff from them but I think it's overpriced now. J Crew seems so expensive for what it is - I'd rather go to Cos or dream of Margaret Howell. When it came to London all the fawning press over Jenna Lyons was enough to put me off. It all seemed a bit Emperor's new clothes. Agree that Uniqlo does a lot of what I used to go to Gap for. I get some good stuff from H&M but it takes quite a bit of looking. Their shops are full of stuff and not well laid out.

PrimalLass that is hilariously awful.

J Crew opened in Paris recently. I hadn't ever been to a J Crew shop so went expressly to check it out. I thought it was ugly, appalling quality and overpriced and is wildly out of sync with local competition.

I used to love the childrens backpacks in GAP for school bags , they were thick canvas , looked good and hard wearing-until a couple of years ago when they became the thin material that Claire's accessories and Primark use on their kids mini character bags-not impressed!

It is quite common for retail chains to cut costs and reduce quality when the reason sales are falling is poor design. They end up with poor design and poor quality and their troubles are accentuated.

Sorry I think Gap jeans are terrible! I have recently bought 2 pairs and although the cut is nice they both already have worn fabric and holes. Not worth it IMO. Although gap kids stuff much better but haven't bought lots from there recently either.

I suspected Gap's business model had gone a bit awry, the 30% off emails are almost weekly now.

Not a fan of their jeans, I keep trying but I have a small waist and big bum and they just don't work for me. I haven't tried the resolution ones though.

I think the poster who said that 40+ yos who run the show haven't clocked on that 2osomethings don't have the disposable cash they used to is spot on. Also that the mid range shops' quality is rarely any better than cheap shops and yet often four times the price. Yesterday my entire outfit was from Tesco and Primark and it was all well made and not brand new, ie washed well too. I recommend Tesco ripped knee jeans if anyone's in the market for some