Streetwear Wants Its Own GAP Hoodie
The GAP's signature three-letter arced logo hoodie was already abruptly cool. Now, streetwear brands are doing their best to make it cooler. Or, perhaps more accurately, to make their own.
Stüssy and Carhartt WIP are the most overt examples of streetwear labels taking on the GAP hoodie and they're in good, timely company.
The sudden youth-culture virality of American mall brand's trademark logo sweater has inspired a minor glut of likeminded hoodies from several quintessential streetwear purveyors.
It all begins with TikTok-fueled demand for the original GAP hoodie. Call it retro-chic, call it nostalgia for an era that many of the trend's proponents are too young to remember (or even existed in) — whatever you call it, GAP buzz became very real.
To put it simply, kids are unironically (well, maybe semi-ironically) wearing hoodies stitched with three capital letters all over the place, and thus we have Stüssy's "STU" hoodie and Carhartt WIP's "WIP" pullover.
The GAP hoodie is a pretty common riff by now — a season prior, parodic Japanese label Doublet debuted a $650 XXXXL-sized hooded "NAP" gown and, further back, Balenciaga's gargantuan Pride hoodies read "GAY" — but the timing of these new homages is quite intentional.
And maybe it's just my GAP-powered blinders talking, but you can see the influence of GAP's collegiate-style branded hoodie in other recent examples from labels like Corteiz, Supreme, and Denim Tears, the latter of which has made a habit of riffing on mallcore classics (think Polo Ralph Lauren).
Even former GAP partners Palace and Madhappy, whose collaborative collections with the American mall brand included their own revamped GAP hoodies, are still embedded in the cycle of semi-grunge arc-logo pullovers zested-up with a little GAP flavor.
Note that not merely any pullover or zip-up sweater with a curved logo in a collegiate-style font is indebted to the GAP hoodie
It's really more about the vibe, a sort of throwback pre-Y2K affect that taps into the same general appeal summed up by the GAP hoodie itself.
But it's typically quite obvious when a designer is nodding to the GAP.
To reference the GAP hoodie isn't merely to lean into a trend but to reframe an artifact of forgotten Americana. Distance makes the heart grow fonder.
Like, we don't all congregate in malls anymore, but the GAP hoodie reminds us of a time when we did.
And to reference the GAP hoodie isn't just to call back to the now-abandoned American mall but to absorb that notion of suburban ennui that makes them so forgettably memorable. It may wear a have giant logo but it stands in more than it stands out, subsuming the wearer in turn.
Modern streetwear brands riffing on the GAP hoodie are conscious of this, even unintentionally. Their hoodies are never gonna be as omnipresent as the GAP's OG, but the homage is overt enough that the point is clear. And the GAP logo is just such a perfect subject to parody.
All you need is three letters. Or at least a curved logo.
