Coach’s Former Creative Director Just Made a Gap Handbag
There’s an alchemy to making a truly desirable, wholly original handbag; one that could only come from a single brand’s unique codes. Lemaire has its patisserie-friendly Croissant, and Hermès its Birkin. For most brands, it’s the accessories, not the clothes, that become the status symbol for consumers to snap up.
So when you’re looking to tap into this major market, it helps to bring in the heavyweights. Someone like, say, Reed Krakoff.
The three-time CFDA Accessories Designer of the Year winner has shaped fashion for decades, amassing an enviable CV packed with gigs like creative director at Tommy Hilfiger and Tiffany’s first (and only) Chief Artistic Officer. And then there’s his 16-year run as creative director for Coach, during a period when the company became a billion-dollar brand. With this level of expertise, it tracks that a brand ready to enter the accessories market would bring him on board.
It’s just surprising that the brand is Gap. Well, maybe not so surprising. The brand has been on an upswing lately, with Zac Posen hired as Gap Inc.'s Executive Vice President and Creative Director and brand campaigns with top-tier talent like Katseye and Troye Sivan. It isn't that the American heritage brand doesn’t sell bags, either. There are totes, shoppers and bucket bags to buy.
There’s never been a truly “Gap” bag available — until now.
Enter: GapBags. A dedicated line of handbags that Krakoff oversaw in his new role as Gap Inc.’s Executive Director of Accessories. “Like most everything I've done, it started organically,” he told Highsnobiety. Krakoff met Gap Inc.'s CEO. Richard Dickson through a friend, they talked about how the company doesn’t have a real accessories business, and... voila. “It wasn't something I had in mind at the start of the meeting. It came out of a conversation about what we could add to Gap’s portfolio.”
The resulting collection establishes Gap’s newfound presence in the handbag market through unmistakably Gap silhouettes. One glance at the Five-Pocket denim and cotton Hoodie totes immediately calls to mind Gap’s signature denim and logo sweatshirt. But there are also charms and keychains to add on, bringing a bit of the trinketmaxxing market to the brand 57 years after its founding.
With the GapBag line set to launch on September 8, we caught up with Krakoff to talk through the design process and how to stand out in a crowded market.
The accessories market is quite packed. Where do you see Gap standing out?
When I went to Coach in the late '90s, there was really no such thing as accessible luxury in handbags. It was all European luxury brands, plus a few small American brands. We took the opportunity to build something that was more accessible and a little more democratic. It became a multi-billion-dollar business over the next 12 years.
I see the same kind of opportunity with Gap accessories, because there's almost no other brand with a history, codes and a personality in this space. A few brands basically copy what's out there at a good price; that’s their model, and they do it very well. But for Gap, it’s different. Doing what other accessible accessories players are doing — replicating what's out there at a good price — was not an option; it wasn’t something I was interested in, and it wasn't what Gap was interested in either.
What insights have you learned from working on this project?
With the right people and the right commitment, you can create something that isn't already out there. It was genuinely an experiment; I can't say I was certain at the beginning that it could be done. When you see the bags, you see that the value is incredible.
The bags themselves had to be something people wanted, and the price had to make sense on top of that. If you can create something people really want at a price that's genuinely reasonable, you really have something. That was the objective with this collection.
A lot of the bags pull directly from Gap's archives, like the logo hoodie and the five-pocket denim bags. Walk me through the design process.
From the very beginning, the most important thing was to create something you don't have to explain; it could only come from Gap. Looking at what's iconic about the brand — five-pocket jeans, denim detailing, utility clothing, the Gap T-shirt — all of those categories have one thing in common: they're simple but not plain. That was the baseline for creating the five-pocket tote: make it something cool and desirable.
The functional part was easy. We pulled a lot of details from the denim line in terms of trim, wash, and fabrication, then blended that with the idea of a luxury handbag. It's more of a conceptual take on a handbag than just a denim tote. That took a lot of back-and-forth with the team, plus a lot of research and development. It wasn't easy.
There are also charms and keychains, which are two elements you’ve worked a lot with in your past design jobs. Can you talk more about that?
One thing the team and I thought a lot about is that Gap is very much about wearing things your own way; not dictating to someone how it should look or be paired. It's about self-expression, so it was important to add this component of customization and personalization. There’s a whole series of bag charms and scarves, and we’ll be doing limited-edition monogramming for the launch.
The logo hoodie bag also feels very current, given Gap's resurgent, "cool again" moment.
It's exciting that Gap has really become top of mind again. People love the feel of Gap; they love the product and the marketing — it's all coming together and feels relevant. [The logo] made sense in the context of a silhouette that was as important as the branding itself. Had we just taken the Gap logo and slapped it on a tote, I don’t think it would’ve gotten people's attention or been successful over time.
It's also unisex. You can carry it to the gym, to work, on the weekend, every day. You don’t have to think too hard about where you'd wear the bag or whether it's for you. It was created as an outgrowth of the GAP brand, amplifying all the American design qualities you think of with this iconic brand: accessible, affordable, cool, laid-back.
Think of Sharon Stone wearing a Gap T-shirt on the red carpet years ago, or any of those instances where this high-low aspect occurs. That’s what Gap is. So these are meant for both the bag aficionados and for people who just want something cool to carry their stuff in.
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