Earlier this year, High Street label Gap invited blogger Garance Doré (also an illustrator), to design an exclusive collection of T-shirts to be sold in the Gap Pop Up shop in Carnaby Street over London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2010. I wanted to question Gap on why they chose to collaborate with a blogger and how it affected the sales and promotion of the project.
Lorraine Sandy is the Visual Production Manager for Gap Inc & Banana Republic.
R: What made you choose to collaborate with Garance Doré for the limited-edition T-shirt collection?
L: "We originally wanted to work with The Sartorialist ... who GAP have worked with in the past. Sadly he had already committed to an exhibition/book launch with Liberty's. He suggested Garance, his girlfriend I might add, as a possible instead, and after our PR team spoke to her and negotiated fees etc, she agreed."
R: Did you receive a lot of hype about the pop up store and the collection itself through her blog?
L: "Yes we did. She blogs on a daily basis, and had pictures of progress of setting the exhibition up, what she had done during the day. It was her usual diary style of writing, along with some illustrations too. I even managed to be on the site in a picture she took, although it was only from the back :(. Through the blog and Garance showing the T's there was a huge response from her 'fans' and in the end we printed more T's for the French store Collette to sell. It was an amazing response."
R: Do you consider blogging as another form of advertising?
L: "Absolutely. Anything written about you is a form of advertising and very good PR."
R: By commissioning Garance Doré alongside the likes of Pharell Williams, would you say that bloggers are catching up with music and fashion icons as the new 'celebrities'?
L: "I think that Garance is definitely proof of this. She has become a 'celebrity' herself, and is even one of the top 25 influential fashion people in the world. She has a huge following on her blog site, is interviewed as much herself by lots of fashion magazines."
To read Garance's blog and view more images visit http://www.garancedore.fr/en/2009/09/11/its-up/
A huge thanks to Lorraine for responding so quickly x x x
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