英国卫报：Gap是如何迷失自己的？(5)（在线收听）

　　If you don’t know Drexler’s name, you certainly know his work.

　　如果你不知道德雷克斯勒的名字，你肯定知道他的作品。

　　After nearly 20 years at Gap, he moved to J Crew, the US’s foremost purveyor of preppy New England style, turning it into a hit machine favoured by Michelle Obama and Gwyneth Paltrow.

　　在Gap工作了近20年后，他跳槽到美国最著名的新英格兰学院风品牌J Crew，将其打造成米歇尔·奥巴马格温妮丝·帕特洛青睐的热门品牌。

　　As an Apple board member, a role he occupied from 1999 to 2015, he also helped Steve Jobs design the concept for the brand’s clean, minimalist stores.

　　1999年到2015年，他担任苹果董事会成员，还帮助史蒂夫·乔布斯设计了该品牌干净、简约的商店概念。

　　A native New Yorker, Drexler approaches conversations like a voluble, hyper-focused whirlwind and in the business world, he has a reputation for being a merchandising genius.

　　德雷克斯勒是土生土长的纽约人，他在谈话时就像一股滔滔不绝、高度专注的旋风，并且在商界，他被誉为销售天才。

　　Put simply, he knows what people are going to want to wear, how much of it to buy and how to price it.

　　简而言之，他知道人们想穿什么，买多少，以及如何定价。

　　“You kind of have an emotional thermometer inside you,” Drexler told me over the phone.

　　德雷克斯勒在电话中告诉我：“你体内有一个情感温度计。”

　　“If you don’t have that, you can’t do this business well.”

　　“如果你不具备这一点，你就不能把这项业务做好。”

　　When he arrived at Gap, Drexler started liquidating the company’s inventory, marking down prices to clear.

　　当他来到Gap时，德雷克斯勒开始清理公司的库存，通过低价来清仓。

　　This is a common way for retailers to get rid of dead weight, but the process was terrifying to Drexler.

　　这是零售商摆脱沉重负担的常见方式，但这个过程对德雷克斯勒来说是可怕的。

　　It was his first time working at a public company, and its earnings and stock price were plummeting.

　　这是他第一次在一家上市公司工作，当时公司的收益和股价都在暴跌。

　　“I’m scared shitless inside,” said Drexler, recalling that period of his life.

　　德雷克斯勒回忆起那段时期时说：“我心里害怕得要命。”

　　He’d come home at night to his wife, Peggy, and wonder what on earth he was doing at Gap.

　　他晚上回家见他的妻子佩吉，想知道他到底在Gap做什么。

　　Drexler’s strategy was to introduce a line of casual, classic, affordable clothing suited to the middle class baby boomers who were now establishing themselves in their careers and starting families.

　　德雷克斯勒的策略是推出一系列休闲、经典、价格实惠的服装，适合中产阶级的婴儿潮一代，他们现在正在事业上站稳脚跟，组建家庭。

　　Under Drexler, Gap found hits in items like its jeans, fleeces and 10-button henley shirts.

　　在德雷克斯勒的领导下，Gap在牛仔裤、卫衣和10颗纽扣的亨利衬衫等产品上取得了成功。

　　As he had planned, bold, crisp colour became its calling card.

　　正如他所计划的那样，大胆、明快的色彩成为了它的名片。

　　Gap polo shirts were not just blue, black or white; they now came in fuchsia, red and jade green, too.

　　Gap Polo衬衫不只有蓝色、黑色或白色的，现在也出现了紫红色、红色和翠绿色。

　　Gap sold the building blocks of unfussy American style, and it sold them to everyone.

　　Gap将朴实无华的美式风格卖给了所有人。

　　At the time, most other clothing retailers thought about their customers in rigid terms, dividing stores up according to age groups and price categories.

　　当时，大多数其他服装零售商对顾客的考虑都很严格，按照年龄和价格类别对商店进行划分。