Zac Posen’s GapStudio Collection 01 redefines Gap brand with bold tailoring and elegant denim

NEW YORK (AP) - As his high-end GapStudio collection makes its debut, fashion designer Zac Posen reflects on his journey to revitalize the Gap brand and his vision for its future.

Appointed creative director at Gap Inc. in 2024, Posen has shaped the creative direction for Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic. By taking bold risks, he has elevated the heritage brand, starting with his groundbreaking designs at last year's Met Gala.

"I had this amazing opportunity with Oscar-winner Da'Vine Joy Randolph and the chance to bring in different artisans during the process," Posen says. "I think they saw a new facet of my creativity and what Gap could represent culturally."

Randolph wore a striking all-denim gown inspired by Gap's 1969 denim, designed for the gala's "Garden of Time" theme. The following day, the orders began flooding in, and an idea was born.

Posen’s Collection 01 brings a fresh, modern twist to American style with expert tailoring, intricate details and a touch of elegance. Featuring elevated takes on Gap's signature fabrics, the collection includes a chic trench coat and stylish sailor pants - both in denim - and the now-famous poplin maxi shirtdress.

As a designer, Posen was known for his namesake label and glamorous, body-hugging gowns. The label was shut down in 2019.

Posen recently hosted The Associated Press at his Gap design studio in New York, where he discussed the collection, his passion for denim and the journey in reinventing his career.

Responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.

POSEN: This amazing opportunity that came about with like 'do we do a Met Gala outfit,' right? 'Do we do a Met Gala outfit?' And we said, "yes, let's do it." And I had this amazing opportunity with Da'Vine Joy (Randolph) and the ability to kind of bring in different art artisans in the process. And I think they saw a different facet … of my creativity and what Gap could mean culturally.

POSEN: The Met Gala happened. And then the next day, my friend Erin Walsh, stylist, and Anne Hathaway called and said, we want you to make a cotton dress. And from that moment we produced the dress. Sold within hours, sold out online. And we kind of started to see this cultural conversation starting and this other facet that really naturally evolved. It wasn't in a strategy or a playbook. I never really thought I'd be rebuilding another sub-brand within such an iconic brand and have this opportunity to work in an artisanal manner in the early development of a collection that will be available to a much larger scale amount of people."

POSEN: I hadn't had my company since before COVID, since 2019, when my company closed. And it had been this interesting time period … Obviously COVID happened. I had to figure out how to support myself, and I was doing one-of-a-kind pieces. I did some projects with Ryan Murphy on 'Feud: Capote Versus the Swans,' and little projects here and there, and I was looking at different opportunities, mostly around within luxury and with luxury brands that I'd been in conversations with for quite some time. And I had this amazing opportunity here.

POSEN: GapStudio is using a totally different skill set of mine, the ability and honor to be able to kind of call the team back after … losing a family that I had built and grown with for over 20 years of incredible artisans and craftspeople and designers that I worked with for many years that had been broken apart, is a full journey story that I actually never saw or expected in my life, and it's really meaningful. It's really beautiful to create environment in a space and to have an American institutional corporation and brand invest in creativity and talent at this level is really unprecedented.

POSEN: Great question. Gap is Gap. Gap will always be evolving. The world has evolved. Great classics are always great classics. They always need those elements of elevation to them. I think design and how people dress today has changed. I think that new consumers in the marketplace are requesting elements to mix into their classics that are more elevated, that are more stylish. That's how we capture a new, younger audience.

POSEN: Denim is quintessentially American. It's such an incredible fiber. Right? It is cotton and it's indigo. These are two plants. I don't know. I'm a gardener. So I'll just add that. But, you know, denim is utility. Denim is artisanal. Actually, a pair of jeans that gets made has as many steps as a couture gown. You don't really realize that as a consumer. I go to the washhouses, and I see these incredible artisans kind of modeling, building, washing, scrubbing, sanding, dramaling, I mean, it's mind blowing that, you know, this world that we're living in, wearing all these jeans, have no sense of those processes.

POSEN: For me, durability or quality is important in any piece one makes. I'm not interested in disposable clothing. Even with my gowns, I believed in quality and integrity of make and construction. And so, when you take it to a larger audience, you want pieces that can be a keepsake. I don't believe in building a collection that is age focused. This collection definitely has a voice for a new customer and definitely has cute styles for a younger customer, but it should totally be cross-generational. It should be able to work on a lot of different body types. That's how I've always designed my collections, and durability, for sure. I mean, you want pieces that can become keepsakes and beloved and passed on and shared.

POSEN: I think that Gap is a staple. Gap represented kind of a way of dress, a kind of modern wardrobe for the consumer that was rooted in … classic fabrications and … reinventing them, representing American style to the consumers all around the world. I hope to kind of hold that quality and those attributes and bring in kind of style and bring in a sense of trend and pieces that just add a little bit of that magic.

POSEN: We will see. We will see.