Tagged: gant

GANT S/S ’13

If you’re looking for a masterclass on how to win over a whiny blogger, look no further than Gant. A while ago, after frustration got the better of me, I tweeted about an employee refusing to give me a refund for a pair of socks that had gone into holes after I’d worn them twice. Since then, they’ve sent me two replacement pairs (both of which have stayed intact!) and spontaneously invited me down to a bloggers’ breakfast to check out the new collection. WELL, I figured it would be positively rude not to…

gant rugger menswear formal

You might imagine that for a brand like Gant, things are very much ‘business as usual’ and, to an extent, you’d be right. However, while it remains clear that they aren’t planning to fix something that’s not broken, their latest collection is full of little touches that really demonstrate the brand’s commitment to stay fresh. I spoke with a member of the brand’s marketing department, who told me that social media and blogger outreach are starting to play a much bigger part in the brand’s strategy. While those of us who spend most of our lives online don’t find that too surprising, it’s worth observing that this already puts Gant ahead of a lot of their competition. It’s also worth pointing out that word of mouth has always been a big part of Gant’s business, and this is still true today…except now it’s probably more likely to be in the form of a tweet than a conversation on campus.

Gant Oxford shirt Madras detailing

With brands like Shore Leave and Farah, two high street contenders that both (to my mind) recall the preppy style of Gant and Ralph Lauren, on the scene it’s clear that Gant don’t intend to rest on their laurels. Take, for example, this unstructured dip dyed blazer…

Gant Michael Bastian dip dye blazer

…from the brand’s collaboration with Michael Bastian (a partnership now in its third year), also Head Designer at Gant Rugger. Speaking of Gant Rugger, I’ve fallen pretty much head over heels for this varsity jacket from their latest offering, which has sheepskin on the sleeves instead of the usual leather -

Gant Rugger sheepskin varsity jacket

For once, I think I’ll let the pictures do the talking -

Gant Harrington check jacket

Gant S/S 2013 dress

Gant button detail

Gant Rugger shirts

The fact that Gant invited a group of bloggers to their flagship London store says as much about the brand as the fact that this year’s S/S collection draws from coastal cultures all over the world, as opposed to the brand’s humble New Haven beginnings. It’s clear that they have big ambitions (evident from the fact that they now have stores in over 60 countries), far beyond just being ‘that one preppy brand’.

Now, if you need me, I’ll be in heaven (read: by that shirt display).

Spotlight on: GANT

Everyone has that brand. You know the one I mean – the one that makes you want to buy everything in the whole store despite the fact it’s out of your price range. The one you can never find in TK Maxx. The one that leaves you counting down the days until they have a sale. The one that, when you open your bank statement, has you cutting up your credit card and sobbing gently while the theme song from Requiem for a Dream plays in the background. For me, Gant is that brand.

Subtle floral detailing

To say that my fashion sense is eclectic is something of an understatement (my wardrobe contains everything from bandanas and Black Dahlia Murder t-shirts to deck shoes and ripped skinny jeans), but preppy brands like Ralph Lauren, Gant and Abercrombie & Fitch have had a constant presence for longer than I can remember.

The fashion world is ridden with simulations and simulacra – Ralph Lauren stoically continues to present images of polo, country clubs and the upper classes despite gathering near exponential popularity with young African Americans looking to emulate their hip hop mogul idols. Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch seem to have all but ditched the idea of being a brand for frat boys and surfers and have been subsumed by their own branding. Is it just me or are those moose and seagull logos getting bigger by the minute…?

So what of Gant? Despite being started by a Ukranian immigrant and launched internationally by a Swedish company, Gant retains a distinct sense of American-ness. No doubt, this is something they work hard to cultivate – one need only look at the interior of their flagship stores to realise this.

So, here’s the kicker. I don’t consider myself a big blogger. I don’t even consider myself an established blogger. So imagine my surprise when Halpern PR contacted me on behalf of Gant, already aware that I’ve previously written about them.

Thanks, Gant!

As well as sending me a present (which I love, obviously…now looking for an excuse to wear a tie), they told me about the Yale Shirt Initiative. If you went down to the store last weekend (RETROSPECTIVE BLOGGING KLAXON), you could have your initials monogrammed on a shirt in different fonts, colours and places. All for free. Which is nice. And it was all done right in the shop window -

I was already hugely impressed by this move – the fact that a mega brand like Gant approached someone like me says a lot about how they do things. When I ambled down to the store unannounced, I was even more impressed – the staff told me all about the Yale Shirt Initiative, despite the fact that I (probably) looked like a bit of a ragamuffin, and they even laughed at my terrible jokes. Which, as anyone who’s met me before knows, is the key to my heart.

In the early days, Gant targeted the most prestigious stores they could find. If the store didn’t accept them, they waited until they were reconsidered (this usually only took as long as it did for word of their high quality products to spread). Although it would be easy to equate this with elitism, it’s clear that this simply isn’t the case – one thing that has remained constant from then until now is the brand’s uncompromising vision. They’re aspirational, value perfectionism and clearly want to be the best. As far as I can see, that’s why they are.

Secret Underground Stations & A Vintage Tie

Just in case a (no longer very…) secret underground station in New York that’s half Harry Potter, half Bioshock isn’t cool enough for you, the bits of it that are really illegal to get to are being turned into a pop up graffiti museum. Insanely cool. More pics and info on Travelettes.

This tie. Vintage Gant. £9 on eBay. I shouldn’t have to say anything else, but I will anyway. My two predictions for the next trends to (re)surface are rave, but in a completely different way to nu-rave…writing a post on it very soon, and kitschy Americana. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell whether a lot of the balding, Western shirt clad men with funny moustaches wandering around Shoreditch are post-ironic hipsters or actual rednecks. Keep your jokes to yourself; one of these groups is so trigger happy that they can’t even make breakfast without a gun.

Why vintage is the new ‘new’.

Doc Martens, courtesy of a too.

I recently tweeted that the most stylish kids of our generation are dressing like their parents used to. Although I faced a little bit of backlash (but when have I ever said anything that hasn’t resulted in a bit of backlash…?), a lot of people actually agreed with me. What I wasn’t able to compress into a couple of tweets is my internal debate about whether or not vintage shopping is getting easier.

My argument hinged around the fact that a ton of brands my parents used to like are now hugely popular with bloggers and other fashion conscious young people – my dad wore Doc Martens as a kid (c.f. my beautiful new ones at the top of this post), and has worn Gant and Ralph Lauren (both two of my ‘go to’ brands) shirts for years. My mum spent most of the ’90s in Liberty print and maxi-dresses, both now making a huge comeback. So, in theory, all kids have to do to look great these days is raid their parents’ wardrobes…right?

Not quite. Consider the difference between the following two statements – ‘You look so ’80s!’ and ‘Your clothes look like they’re thirty years old.’ It’s pretty obvious which one sounds more favourable.  When I wear one of my dad’s favourite shirts I invariably look like…well, someone wearing their dad’s old shirt. However, on finding similar shirts in charity shops and the like, it quickly becomes apparent that items have often been donated because the wearer found it at the back of their wardrobe and realised they never wear it.

It used to be that shopping for vintage clothes was incredibly difficult, because finding clothes in good condition was tough to do. Brands like Levi’s, Gant and Abercrombie have totally changed this. By selling clothes that have already been weathered to look vintage, including everything from pre-ripped locker loops (pictured below) to sand washed and torn denim, secondhand shopping has the chance to truly hit the bigs again.

Ripped locker loops traditionally indicated that the wearer had a significant other.

I had a quick word with the gents from a too, a specialist menswear retailer in Birmingham, about how menswear has changed in the last 15 years. This is what they told me – “Don’t get too comfortable! It is amazing just how much men’s fashion and the requirements of customers has changed over the years, something that we have had to constantly be aware of.” They also intimated that most customers are now “looking for something that is a little bit special…they look for great details, fit and materials which set clothes a level up from the regular high-street offerings.”

The guys also alluded to a point I made in a previous blog, namely that popular culture (everything from television shows to the internet) now has a huge impact of people, whether they’re aware of it or not. “The rise of style-based blogs has also meant that people come in looking for a certain look, rather than wanting to get kitted with a particular brand, which is reflected in the brands that we now stock.”

I was recently checking out some advertising from the 1950s and came across this old advert for Gant -

The advert struck me because it reminded me so much of the Mad Men look, which demonstrated another reason that vintage is so massive right now – as well as people wanting their clothes to have character and ‘stories’ to them (whether those stories truly belong to the garment’s owner or not is another story…), current trends are very much based around picking and choosing stylistic devices from the last hundred years and mixing them together in a very postmodern way. And it goes without saying that a shirt made in the ’50s will always look more legit than a shirt that’s been made to look like it was made in the ’50s.

So why are some brands already repro’ing stuff that looks just like what my parents used to wear? Well, there are two reasons. Firstly, they’re putting an incredibly subtle (one far too subtle to explain here…) spin on things that make them similar enough to invoke nostalgia but different enough to make it look fresh and not like one of Pops’ beaten up old shirts. Secondly, there are still men (and women, too) who are resilient to the idea of putting together a collection of vintage pieces because…well, to be frank, vintage shopping can take a lot of work. It’s probably no coincidence that two of a too’s best selling collections are Gitman Vintage and Gant Rugger.

But if you have a little time, there’s not much you’ll find in stores that you won’t find in a vintage store.