Usually it’s easy for us to review a collection collaboration between a celebrity designer and a mass market retailer. When it’s Stella McCartney you can write the gushing review before the collection even hits the retail floor. But what happens when the collection is geared towards an audience who think Disney princesses are trendsetting and Hannah Montana personifies sophistication?
To find out we took a few tykes to the 87th Street & Third Avenue Gap to get a personal review. Our critics are “Flower Girl,” a three-year-old who refuses to wear pants and prefers that babysitter esthetic. “Katie,” a five-year-old self-proclaimed rock star who naturally tends to lead towards a happy-hipster look. “Violet,” is six and is partial to the color purple. “Alex” prefers to look preppy. He is, after all, a product of the Upper East Side.
Flowergirl loved the tutu skirt on the cardboard model, however, that item did not make it to this particular boutique. A store manager said they hope to receive the skirt– which happens to be the best selling item in the collection–by Thursday. Flower Girl found the Balmain inspired band jacket to be amusing to try on but could not be sold on that or on any single item in the collection. Instead, she preferred modeling fleece hats and rainbow heart scarves. Flower Girl’s mother said she would check back for the tutu later in the week.
The skinny jeans were a natural choice for Katie who prefers all her clothing to be form fitting. The $58 price was a bit much for Katie’s mom, who said she would rather opt for the traditional Gap skinny jeans that are half the price. Katie and her mom both agreed that the best piece in the collection is the $58 pink drop waist silk dress. For Katie, the dress was love at first sight and her mother agreed that it was perfect when paired with a navy cardigan.
Lucky for Violet, there is a lot of purple in the Gap/Stella collection. Her mom, really liked the purple bow coat ($98) but decided it was a bit unpractical for cold New York winters and for the fact that Violet was unable to button the coat herself. She did, however, take home the drop waist silk dress in violet, flare jeans ($58) and the long gray wool cardigan ($68).
Boys are notoriously squeamish when it comes to fashion but seven-year-old Alex was ready to jump in with his opinion. The band jacket was totally out of the question. The blazer fit perfectly but Alex’s wardrobe was already filled adequately with blazers. In the end, the western shirts ($38) won out. If the shirts were not a designer collaboration, Alex’s mother doubted that either of them would have payed much attention.
There you have it: Four kids. Eight opinions. In the end, we know that that collaboration will be a great Gap success but more because of fashion forward mother’s than rainbow loving tots. Now, if they could only get in that tutu…
