Fashion has always been informed and influenced by culture. But in recent years, culture has increasingly doubled as commerce, as more brands seek out ways to capitalize on the cachet of industries, from film to sport to food.
Brands have made ample investments in entertainment as of late, from LVMH’s launch of its 22 Montaigne Entertainment venture, which focuses on opportunities that take advantage of the intellectual property, archives and locations of LVMH brands, and Saint Laurent’s film production offshoot, to brands’ many tie-ups with sports teams, leagues and streaming platforms.
Now, Gap Inc. is taking things one step further. In a bid to formalize the relationship between fashion and entertainment — ‘fashiontainment’, as Gap calls it — the company has appointed Pam Kaufman as its first-ever chief entertainment officer. Alongside the appointment, Gap is opening an office in Los Angeles, in a bid to embed the company in America’s entertainment capital. (Even if much of Hollywood is fleeing to more affordable production locales.) The Sunset Boulevard space will be the locus of Gap’s pop culture-focused efforts, led by Kaufman, who will split her time between LA, New York and San Francisco.
Kaufman joins the company from Paramount, where she was president and CEO of international markets, global consumer products and experiences. At Gap, she will help to build and scale the retail group’s entertainment, content and licensing platform across music, television, film, sports, gaming, consumer products and cultural collaborations.
“Fashion no longer sits adjacent to other cultural industries; it is structurally intertwined with them,” says Rose Coffey, senior foresight analyst at strategic consultancy The Future Laboratory. “Film, music and food are not external reference points, but shared cultural systems through which meaning, identity and value are produced.”
Gap president and CEO Richard Dickson knows the power of the entertainment industry more than most operating in the fashion sphere. He joined Gap from Mattel in 2023, fresh off of Barbie’s stellar press tour. He also hired Zac Posen as EVP and creative director, who has dressed celebrities in Gap for their red carpet moments, from Da’Vine Joy Randolph at the Met Gala to Anne Hathaway at a Bulgari jewelry event in Rome.
Dickson believes that what consumers want is to buy into a story, and that marketing goes well beyond product. “Fashion is entertainment, and today’s customers aren’t just buying apparel, they’re buying into brands that tell compelling stories and drive cultural conversations,” he said in a statement.
