英国卫报：Gap是如何迷失自己的？(4)（在线收听）

　　Thanks to its sturdy construction, denim was originally worn by farmers, miners and industrial workers, but in the mid-20th century, it became the perfect uniform for young people interested in rejecting social hierarchies.

　　由于牛仔裤结实的材质，最初是农民、矿工和产业工人穿的，但在20世纪中期，它成为有兴趣拒绝社会等级的年轻人的完美制服。

　　On American college campuses in 1960, you would have found young men wearing blazers, ties and corduroys and young women in wool tweed skirts and sweaters, said Regina Blaszczyk, a professor of business history at the University of Leeds.

　　利兹大学商业史教授雷吉娜·布拉兹奇克说，在1960年的美国大学校园里，你会发现年轻男子穿着西装、领带和灯芯绒，年轻女子穿着羊毛粗花呢裙子和毛衣。

　　But, she continued, “By the end of the decade, they’re wearing jeans.”

　　但是，她继续说道，“到六十年代末，他们都穿牛仔裤。”

　　And by the 1970s, this look, like other elements of the counterculture, had gone mainstream.

　　到了20世纪70年代，这种装扮，就像其他反主流文化的元素一样，成为了主流。

　　Riding the denim craze, Gap expanded across the country, launching its own Gap label to sell alongside Levi’s jeans, and went public in 1976.

　　乘着牛仔的热潮，Gap在全国范围内扩张，推出了自己的Gap品牌，与Levi’s牛仔裤一起销售，并于1976年上市。

　　(Fisher phased out selling records early on, when it became apparent that jeans were a much bigger draw.)

　　(费舍尔很早就淘汰了录音带，当时牛仔裤显然更具吸引力。)

　　But because Gap relied on Levi’s so heavily, it was vulnerable to the other company’s fortunes.

　　但由于Gap严重依赖Levi’s，它很容易受到另一家公司命运的影响。

　　After the Federal Trade Commission accused Levi’s of price-fixing in 1976, Gap missed its target stock price at IPO.

　　1976年，美国联邦贸易委员会指控Levi’s操纵价格后，Gap未能在IPO中实现目标股价。

　　When that ruling gave other retailers permission to mark down Levi’s goods, Gap faced pressure to drop its own prices to remain competitive.

　　这一裁决允许其他零售商降低Levi’s的商品价格，Gap面临着降低价格以保持竞争力的压力。

　　“It became a big enough problem that Gap strategically felt they had to migrate away from Levi’s,” said Mark Cohen, the director of retail studies at Columbia Business School, who worked for Fisher in the late 70s.

　　“这已经成了一个大问题，从战略上看，Gap必须离开李维斯。”哥伦比亚大学商学院零售业研究主管马克·科恩说，他曾在70年代末为费舍尔工作。

　　Gap tried new ideas -- Cohen worked on a short-lived brand called Logo, which catered to an older audience that couldn’t wear jeans to work (Cohen describes it as “kind of a precursor to Banana Republic”) -- and introduced a wider variety of clothing to its stores, but it had little success.

　　Gap尝试了新的想法--科恩开发了一个名为Logo的短暂品牌，迎合了不能穿牛仔裤上班的老年受众(科恩将其描述为品牌“Banana Republic的前身”)--并在其门店推出了更多种类的服装，但收效甚微。

　　Then, in 1983, Fisher made a brilliant move.

　　1983年，费舍尔做出了一项绝妙的举动。

　　Seeing how well the women’s clothing chain Ann Taylor was performing, he decided to hire the person behind its success.

　　看到女装连锁店Ann Taylor的表现如此出色，他决定聘请该公司成功背后的人。

　　That was Millard “Mickey” Drexler, who went on to turn Gap into a global juggernaut.

　　这就是米勒德·德雷克斯勒，他后来把Gap打造成了全球巨头。

　　Drexler left Ann Taylor on a Friday, flew to San Francisco over the weekend and started his new job as president of Gap on the Monday.

　　德雷克斯勒在周五离开Ann Taylor，周末飞往旧金山，周一开始他作为Gap总裁的新工作。

　　“It was a business without taste or style, or a point of view,” Drexler told me.

　　德雷克斯勒告诉我：“这是一个没有品味、风格或观点的行业。”

　　He planned to make colour a cornerstone of Gap’s sensibility and pare down the number of styles it sold.

　　他计划让色彩成为Gap敏感度的基石，并减少其销售的款式数量。

　　He planned to give it an identity.

　　他计划给它一个特色。