Gap 1969 gets hip with drop-crotch denim for men
For fall-winter 2011, men’s drop-crotch denim has dropped into the Gap.
It’s not exactly uncharted territory — the slouchy-style trouser can usually be found in a handful of menswear collections on the runways of Milan and Paris each season. (At the recent spring-summer 2012 shows, Giorgio Armani and Vivienne Westwood were among those with the drop on tap.)
But, while the most fashion-forward of fellows would hardly blink at the prospect of donning a pair of baggy designer britches, the men who have traditionally darkened the doorstep of the Gap are not usually associated with the kind of rock-star swagger required to pull off the look. (In other words, Kanye West can do it; you can’t.) And, while a handful of high-end jean brands have added the drop-crotch silhouette to their offerings over the last few years, the premium denim category has yet to fully embrace the style.
Which might make it seem an odd time for the Gap 1969 premium denim collection to make its first foray into the drop zone. But according to that line’s men’s design director Jason Ferro, a former skater-surfer-musician with a penchant for stingy brim fedoras and the word “bro,” the opposite is true.
“I felt it was perfect timing,” Ferro said. “It was time to push it, because there’s so much of [the drop-crotch silhouette] on the street right now. Kids are wearing it, so it made sense for us to kind of lead in the direction of what’s happening on the street.”
And, as Ferro is quick to point out, Gap’s version hardly evokes the cartoonish MC Hammer pants (variously known as parachute pants or harem pants) of the ‘90s. “It’s more subtle than that; it’s meant to be worn slouchy and worn low on the waist. It’s about wearing them with attitude.”
Indeed, the two skinny-jean versions that Gap has included in its fall-winter lineup — a lightweight charcoal gray in 100% cotton denim (which retails for $69.95) and a raw indigo wash with 2% spandex ($79.95) — bear just a passing resemblance to their baggy forebears.
Without the aforementioned attitude, the subtly tapered leg and ample airspace might well go altogether unnoticed.
But the drop-crotch is about more than trendy trousers. It’s part of the company’s larger gambit to appeal to the premium denim crowd with its more fashion-focused 1969 collection (launched in 2009, the name references the year the company was founded). The undertaking has also involved relocating the design team to a former cigar factory in a gritty section of downtown Los Angeles not far from the city’s Fashion District, and highlighting those new digs with a multimedia advertising campaign that’s currently rolling out to magazines and Gap store windows across the country.
“With our new direction — and how we’re pushing denim — [we] have to have these denim silhouettes that push the envelope, and get people into something new and different instead of the old same basic fits that everyone else does,” Ferro said.
While the Gap is clearly ready to embrace drop-crotch denim, what’s less clear is if American menfolk are equally eager. But, according to Ferro, since the styles first became available earlier this month, they’ve been popular not only with men but with women as well.
“It’s kind of going unisex — women like them and are buying them out of the men’s line too, which is amazing,” he said.
Which means the boyfriend drop-crotch denim can’t be far behind.
