First of all, Anjelica Huston has a great agent. Okay, that’s out of the way. Now let’s discuss the Gap’s new “Dress Normal” campaign for fall (in which Huston figures prominently). What does that mean, dress normal? That’s the provocative question Gap wants you to ask, apparently. (Well, the question Gap really wants you to ask is “which way to the register?”) The answer is… the best way to dress normal is to buy your clothes at the Gap. (You knew it!) That way you can emphasize you, and not have a bunch of fashion designers making your statement for you. It’s called disintermediation in the tech world–not letting so much get between you and what you need–and we’re all in the tech world now.
It’s a great catchall campaign for an increasingly fragmented public. We live in a world where media contorts to find its shrinking demographic niche and a big broad audience for a single style is difficult to find. So Gap–which needs big broad appeal to satisfy its business model–throws it back on you. Choose Gap and the clothes illuminate your self, not the garb itself. It’s built to work for anybody. It’s sort of like when Time magazine made everybody the Person of the Year, naming “You” in 2006–when you started starring on YouTube. “Dress Normal” is like YouGap. Here, Gap says, are the tools–or corduroys in this case–now use them to be yourself. Especially if your self is like Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men), Michael K. Williams (Boardwalk Empire), Zosia Mamet (Girls) or–yup, Anjelica Huston. Gap is working the new fragmented landscape perfectly–now the clothes just have to fit.
