NEW YORK — Most Gap customers haven't a clue who Pina Ferlisi is. Hollywood's new It Girl? An Italian tennis star? The math geek in algebra class?
None of the above. Rather, Ferlisi is the reason they are wandering into a store they once passed by and admiring merchandise such as the melon-colored tiered skirt worn by model Alex Wek in the company's recent ad campaign.
In the 15 months that Ferlisi has been Gap's head designer, she and her young, close-knit design team have refined the clothes' fit, enlivened the color palette, upgraded the quality and added fashion-y little details -- floral piping edging a denim jacket, bright scarves worn as belts -- to return some fizz to a label that had gotten flat.
Long the purveyor of iconic staples such as denim jeans, khakis and white T-shirts, Gap lost customers in droves a few years ago when it began pushing trendy, teen-oriented styles such as super-low-rise hip-huggers and glittery, tummy-baring pullovers. Now, with Ferlisi, a former designer for Tommy Hilfiger and Marc Jacobs, revving up Gap's basics, the clothes have acquired a fresh appeal.
"What I've done is focus on style more than fashion," the 39-year-old designer said recently as she sat in her all-white office in the Chelsea area of Lower Manhattan. "A lot of companies will take whatever is happening on the runway and knock it off and put it in their stores. My approach is to give the customer a look that is trend current but that everyone can participate in. Something casual, fun, optimistic and clean-lined."
In a fickle, cutthroat industry where hyperbole is the lingua franca, Ferlisi is this season's design darling, whose name is being trumpeted by a company that once preferred to keep its creative talent anonymous. Her fashionable-but-not-too-trendy clothes have helped pull Gap out of its rut, impressing Wall Street.
"Pina and her designers have done an outstanding job of bringing the fashion vision back to Gap and bringing customers back into the store," said Mark A. Friedman, specialty retail analyst for Merrill Lynch. "We would hope she can continue to build on this momentum."
Ferlisi's aim is to make Gap the go-to destination for a "casual lifestyle" wardrobe rather than being a store you pop into just to purchase a polo shirt. She has expanded the line to include simple separates for work, flirty camisoles for Friday nights and cropped jackets and capris to wear while dropping the kids off at school. Her target customer is 18 to 35, but she insists that anyone with a "youthful spirit" can find something to wear.
