Seeking a slice of premium denim market

For a look into Gap Inc.’s future, take a walk down Rush Street and step into a sliver of a store called 1969. louis vuitton handbags

The denim boutique, opened in May, offers no sign that it is part of Gap. And that is the point.

Neat stacks of jeans are stretched out from waist to hem on a table running the length of the store. More jeans are folded neatly in cubicles under tables.

On a rack just outside the oversize fitting rooms hang a single example of every style of jean in the store: seven for women (curvy, sexy boot, real straight, long and lean, boyfriend, perfect boot and always skinny) and seven for men (skinny, straight, boot, authentic, standard, easy and loose). A few vintage T-shirts and leather belts decorate the walls, but for the most part the store is all about denim. true religion

As the premium denim craze swept the country in the last decade, Gap was nowhere to be found. While shoppers were paying $200 to $300 for Citizens for Humanity and True Religion, the ubiquitous mall chain discovered an uncomfortable fact: Shoppers interviewed in focus groups viewed Gap jeans as suitable for mowing the lawn but not for work or a date, Marka Hansen, the president of Gap North America, told the New York Times in an interview last year.