Roland Mouret’s Galaxy dress was one of last year’s most coveted frocks and was copied by the high street around the world, when actresses such as Scarlett Johansson were photographed wearing the dress. Mouret’s status as a world-class designer quickly rose and subsequently landed him a bonanza of a contract with none other than high street conglomerate, the Gap. But according to The Mail, the designer’s range for Gap has failed to excite the fashionable consumer. The collection of dresses, which was launched with huge publicity last fall with models such as Lily Cole wearing the collection, is now available at discount prices, filling the store’s sales racks at its 3 key London stores. To give you an example, Stella McCartney, Madonna and Viktor & Rolf’s collaborations were snapped up within hours and only a few items remained during the sale, with prices doubling on eBay, moments after stores sold out.
Why, you may ask? When fashionista’s queued for hours when the collection launched, much like Viktor & Rolf’s collaboration with H&M, which sparked a similar media frenzy. To start, fashion experts predicted Mouret’s 10 piece dress collection would be an instant sell-out. With prices starting at £45, it seemed a bargain price to pay for a designer dress, albeit manufactured by the high street. The collection, which featured shirt dresses, jersey smocks and shifts in navy, grey, red and black, was indeed a hit, but unfortunately for Gap, only in its early days.
According to The Mail, the demand for Mouret’s dresses fell after the first 500 sold. Further more, the newspaper stated the branch in Kensington High Street had several racks of dresses available a week into the sales with other items available in Oxford Street and Knightsbridge. Designs that have failed to sell include a grey shirt dress and the red outfit modelled by teenage supermodel Lily Cole at the collection’s launch.
The Cole outfit was to have raised funds for Bono’s Product (RED) campaign to fight HIV, which also features Emporio Armani, American Express and Motorola products. A spokeswoman for Gap told The Mail: “There are remaining dresses in the sale, available in three key stores.” She further added: “This was never meant to be a limited-edition collection. A lot of the most popular styles sold out in certain sizes within a week.In order to make sure that people had a range of sizes to choose from in each size, we put all of the dresses into just three key London stores, so this may be why it looks like we have a lot in the sale.”
At the launch, Mouret told Vogue.com he was interested in the opportunity to make his designs available to a broader audience and was particularly excited about the Gap (PRODUCT) RED involvement. “This initiative is so important and Gap has given me the opportunity to be able to translate my ideas in a more casual sensibility and at the same time help raise funds that will target the Aids pandemic in Africa.” The Gap collaboration was Mouret’s first initiative with his company 19RM, set up together with music mogul Simon Fuller.
Gap has been struggling with its European presence and has been busy setting up a London-based design team, in order to cater to a more fashionable customer, as its American-designed apparel has yet to excite European shoppers.
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