Hello again. It’s been about seven years since I last wrote about my obsessions for the Strategist. This one started with a pair of ’90s loose high-rise jeans in a breezy light blue (sized up for a baggier look) that I wore until a massive hole ripped through the knee. Around the same time I bought those, a friend turned me on to a pair of deep-turquoise-y-green track pants (they’re only available in red now, sorry) that are so nicely structured I’ve worn them to the office with a blazer — and have had them confused for the far pricier Donni. As I sit here writing this, I’m wearing an extremely cozy cropped and slightly oversize polo sweater.
For almost a year now, I’ve been preaching about the Gapaissance to anyone who will listen (at a recent bridal shower, I even cornered a woman after learning she worked at Gap Corporate). Then, in early January, I returned to the Strategist as lead editor and found out that everyone here was in on it too. It was a beautiful moment of kismet. An almost whispered secret getting louder and louder: Could it be? Is it real? We were all discovering our own little corners of the Gapiverse, separately but together.
About three weeks after I arrived, our beauty writer, Tembe Denton-Hurst, mentioned the oversize boyfriend sweater she’d been eyeing. Just yesterday, it arrived in the mail and her Slack was immediate: “Breaking news, the Gap sweater is incredible.” In December, writer Brenley Goertzen made a formal request to be buried in CashSoft. Back in May, three staffers went to try on the Dôen collab. And at a pitch meeting earlier this week, Erin Schwartz pointed us to these kids’ long-sleeve heavyweight-cotton tees that come in a rainbow of perfectly washed-out colors and fit adults in their biggest sizes. (Pro tip: The husky offers a boxier look.)
You already know that we plotz for a deal here at the Strat, and if there’s only one thing to know about the Gap it’s that everything is always on sale. There is always a coupon to be found. And now it is experimenting with new ideas, too: I wasn’t even mad when I couldn’t get my hands on the instantly sold-out GapVintage drop from Sean Wotherspoon earlier this week. I was just happy it existed.
There are some important things to know about shopping at the Gap now, though. The website is barely usable. The app is marginally better. Once you get past all of that: The options are almost limitless.
Do we have Zac Posen to thank for this? We might just investigate that. But what I know for sure, after my first month on the job, is that our interests and expertise here at the Strategist are wide and varied, but there’s one thing we can all agree on: The Gap is absolutely bangin’ right now.
More stuff we like at the Gap
The Strategist is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about here. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
