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Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Purple GAP Bags Collection
Mocha GAP Bags Collection
Soft Brown GAP Bags Collection
Old GAP Bags Collection
The Gap, Inc.is an American clothing and accessories retailer based in San Francisco, California, and founded in 1969 by Donald G. Fisher and Doris F. Fisher. The company has five primary brands: the namesake Gap banner, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta. As of September 2008, Gap, Inc. has approximately 135,000 employees and operates 3,076 stores worldwide, of which 2,551 are in the United States.Gap, Inc. remains the largest specialty apparel retailer in the U.S., though it has recently been surpassed by the Spanish-based Inditex Group as the world's largest apparel retailer.Despite the company's publicly traded status, the Fisher family remains deeply involved in Gap, Inc.'s business and collectively owns a significant quantity of the company's stock.
On August 21, 1969, Donald and Doris Fisher opened the first Gap store on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco. The store's merchandise consisted of Levi's and LPs. The Fishers had raised $63,000 to open the store,and in one year, Gap's sales had reached $2 million. In 1970, Gap opened its second store, in San Jose, California, and established its first corporate headquarters in Burlingame, California with just four employees. Gap grew rapidly. By 1973, it had more than 25 stores, including areas outside California—entering the East Coast market with a store in Voorhees, New Jersey. In 1974, Gap began to sell private-label merchandise.Banana Republic, formerly a small retailer selling safari-themed clothing, was purchased by the company in 1983, and eventually was rebranded as an upscale clothing retailer in the late 1980s. Old Navy was launched in 1994, as a value chain with a specialty flair. Forth & Towne, the company's fourth traditional retail concept, was launched on August 24, 2005, featuring apparel targeted toward women 35 and older.On February 26, 2007 after an 18-month trial period, Forth & Towne was discontinued, and the 19 stores were closed.A fifth brand, the online footwear retailer Piperlime, was created in 2006. A sixth brand, Athleta, a women's athletic wear line was added in 2009.Gap's Sales by Division in Q1 2009As of October 30, 2010 there were 3,082 Gap Inc. stores.Those in Canada, Croatia, France, Italy, Ireland, Japan, UK, and US (and Puerto Rico) are company-owned. Stores outside of these countries are owned and operated by franchises.
GAP Fashion for Boys
Red GAP Bag
GAP New Shirt Styles
GAP Jacket
Red and White GAP Shirt
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Cream Colors from Lacoste Shoes
White Lacoste Shoes with Blue Motif
Black Lacoste Shoes Packaging
Unique and Cute Lacoste Shoes
Black and White Lacoste Shoes
Green Lacoste Shoes
Unique Model from Lacoste Shoes
Lacoste Shoes Exterior
Its major competitors include Armani, Fred Perry, Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger.
René Lacoste founded La Chemise Lacoste in 1933 with André Gillier, the owner and President of the largest French knitwear manufacturing firm at the time. They began to produce the revolutionary tennis shirt Lacoste had designed and worn on the tennis courts with the crocodile logo embroidered on the chest. Although the company claims this as the first example of a brand name appearing on the outside of an article of clothing, the "Jantzen girl" logo appeared on the outside of Jantzen Knitting Mills' swimsuits as early as 1921. In addition to tennis shirts, Lacoste produced shirts for golf and sailing. In 1951, the company began to expand as it branched from "tennis white" and introduced color shirts. In 1952, the shirts were exported to the United States and advertised as "the status symbol of the competent sportsman," influencing the clothing choices of the upper-class. It is still one of the most popular brands in the United States, sporting the "preppy wardrobe".
Lacoste licenses its trademark to various companies. Until recently Devanlay owned the exclusive worldwide clothing license, though today Lacoste Polo Shirts are also manufactured under licence in Thailand by ICC and also in China. Pentland Group has the exclusive worldwide license to produce Lacoste footwear, Procter & Gamble owns the exclusive worldwide license to produce fragrance, and Samsonite holds the worldwide license to produce Lacoste bags and small leather goods.
In June 2007, Lacoste introduced their very first e-commerce site for the U.S. market. Hayden Christensen is the face of the Challenge fragrance for men.
In the early '50s, Bernard Lacoste teamed up with David Crystal, who at the time owned Izod, to produce Izod Lacoste clothing. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was extremely popular with teenagers who called the shirts simply Izod. While the union was both profitable and popular, Izod Lacoste's parent company (David Crystal Co.) was saddled with debt from other business ventures. When attempts to separate Izod and Lacoste to create revenue did not alleviate the debt, Crystal sold his half of Lacoste back to the French and Izod was sold to Van Heusen.
However, starting in 2000, with the hiring of a new fashion designer Christophe Lemaire, Lacoste began to take over control of its brand name and logo, reigning in their branding arrangements. Currently Lacoste has once again returned to the elite status it held before a brand management crisis circa 1990.
Lacoste had a long standing dispute over the logo and clothing lines with Crocodile Garments. Crocodile Garments uses a crocodile logo that faces left while Lacoste uses one that faces right. The two fought for the logo rights in China, which was won by Crocodile Garments in 2003. Crocodile Garments in return agreed to change its logo to have a more vertical tail and more scales.
Lacoste operates a large number of Lacoste boutiques worldwide; located as concessions in leading department stores and also as independent venue stores. In the United Kingdom, Lacoste is available from many leading high-end shops including KJ Beckett and John Lewis Partnership. Likewise in the United States, the Lacoste brand can be found in stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Belk, Halls, and other independent retailers. In Canada, Lacoste is sold at Harry Rosen, its own boutiques, and other independent retailers. In Australia, it is sold at David Jones, and Myer.
As of June 2007, Lacoste's online presence allows Americans to purchase clothing and have items shipped directly to their doors. The online store offers sizes and options not found in brick and mortar stores, along with a large sale section.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Grey Lacoste Bags
