Generation GAP

In 1992, a rising model named Naomi Campbell was asked to do a shoot for the huge American __brand Gap. She thought she’d be all dolled up for the session with fashion photographer Stephen Meisel, but they just popped her in a white T-shirt and cut-off jean shorts. “It was so nice!” she remembers. The beautifully simple black and white shot featured a casual Naomi with her hair loosely parted in the middle, staring at the viewer. She reveals, “It was really the first one I had done as myself – I mean where I looked like me, not really dressed up, just in a T-shirt.” It quickly became iconic.

25 years later – and proving that fashion comes full circle – Naomi is once more modeling for Gap, wearing a simple white pocket T-shirt and jean shorts. And, brace yourselves to be jealous: she’s still wearing the same size. The new campaign is for the limited-edition Archive ReIssue collection available from this month, and features classic designs curated from the brand’s 90s archives.

Highlights from the capsule collection include the famous Reverse Fit jeans, a pale tan leather jacket, pleated khaki trousers and a wealth of perfect 90s basics like cotton tank tops and tees (not least the pocket T). This is truly a collection of products that epitomise the easy, casual style Gap made its own and exported around the world.

Gap is so much part of our style lexicon now, it’s amazing to remember that it didn’t have a presence in the UK back then. In the ‘making of’ video, Naomi reveals:  “When I came to America, my friends back home would say to me, ‘Bring me this thing from Gap. So I would always bring home lots of presents. I remember [the shoot] was a really big deal – I didn’t sleep the night before because it was Gap.” She also told Vogue UK, “What’s great about these simple jeans and tees is that they are basics that will never go away and are just constants in all of our lives.”

Naomi doesn’t star alone in the campaign, far from it. The 90s advertising campaigns featured other icons, like Demi Moore and Jerry Hall, and in the new version, their daughters Rumer Willis and Lizzy Jagger star; Rumer modeling the same denim jacket as her mother, and Lizzy a new version of Jerry's black leotard. Other celebrity progeny include Evan Ross, Diana Ross’ son, Coco Gordon Moore, daughter of Kim Gordon, and Chelsea Tyler, Steve Tyler’s daughter, plus many more.

The Generation Gap video features the full cast larking about and singing to Colour Me Badd’s All 4 Love, and if it doesn’t whet your appetite for fresh faced, simple, casual cool, we don’t know what will. Bravo Naomi for showing us that a tee and jean shorts can look marvellous on anyone, no matter their age.

Visit the GAP Flagship store on London's Oxford Street.

376-384 Oxford Street, London W1C 1JY

T: 020 7408 4500