Designer Mouret fills Gap in high street

LONDON - One is an American mass-market clothing chain known for its basic T-shirts and loose-fitting khaki trousers.

The other is a French-born fashion designer famed for cantilevering the curves of Scarlett Johansson and other starlets into his show-stopping frocks.

Yesterday Gap and Roland Mouret unveiled the latest coupling of high fashion and the high street, a collection of 10 dresses to go on sale next Tuesday that are guaranteed to cause the queues and commotion that have met recent designer collaborations in the UK.

It is the first such project for both Gap and Mouret.

The choice of dresses as opposed to any other garment is judicious.

Mouret's famous 1950s-style 'Galaxy' dress, as worn on the red carpet by Johansson, Victoria Beckham and Rachel Weisz, was priced at £800 and caused lengthy waiting lists at the handful of outlets that stocked it.

By contrast the 10 frocks in the Gap collaboration, many of which feature details recognisable as Mouret's work, such as the Galaxy's folded cap-sleeve, are priced at £48-78 ($137-$222)and will be sold in all Gap stores nationwide and a handful of branches in New York.

Three red-coloured designs will be sold as part of the charitable (Red) initiative, with 50 per cent of profits going to organisations fighting the spread of Aids in Africa.

"I love the Gap concept but, for me, their dresses weren't that strong - but dresses are my strong point, so I brought some of my details to them," said Mouret yesterday after posing with models wearing three of his designs at the launch in central London.

The collaboration is the first project Mouret has undertaken since exiting his own company a year ago, in the process losing the right to design under his own name.

As such Gap will not be able to use the designer's name to promote the collaborating in advertising or at point of sale.

In September Mouret announced a new label, called RM19.

It has the financial backing of pop impresario Simon Fuller of 19 Management, the inventor of The Spice Girls and Pop Idol.

Neither Mouret nor Stephen Sunnucks, president of Gap Europe yesterday ruled out the possibility of further collaborations.

Early reactions from the industry suggest it to be a successful match.

"Roland Mouret, because of the popularity of the Galaxy dress, is pretty well known by anyone interested in fashion for his dresses.

"It also drives new footfall into the store from dedicated fashion followers rather than just loyal Gap ones," said Maureen Hinton, a retail analyst with Verdict.

The Gap collection is set to go head-to-head with a similar designer collaboration due to launch the same week, as H&M unveil their collection with avant-garde Dutch designer duo Viktor & Rolf.

The Swedish retailer grabbed headlines when it hired first Chanel couturier Karl Lagerfeld in 2004 and then Stella McCartney in 2005 to design one-off collections at bargain prices.

In September Topshop entered the fray with the announcement of a spring 2007 collaboration with Kate Moss.

That store had previously concentrated on working with little-known young designers.

In a further indication of how valuable such high-profile collaborations have become to retailers, it is believed that the negotiation of the Moss deal caused a rift between Topshop brand director Jane Shepherdson and her boss Philip Green, leading to the former's resignation this month.

- INDEPENDENT