Gen X Recycled, Gap's Generation Gap, Millennial's Gen-X.

By Laura Medina

Every twenty years, there is a nostalgia that causes recycling for fashion and style and pop culture from twenty years ago.

Back in the Seventies, Happy Days answered the Seventies' nostalgia and curiosity of the Fifties.

When this scribe was an Eighties teen, hunting thrift stores for authentic, real Sixties couture was the hottest thing an Eighties teen can do.

"That '70's Show" did the same thing during the Nineties.

Now that Gen-Xers are middle-aged, it's the Millennials and the Gen-Xer's kids, Gen-Z, who are rediscovering ironic but basic Gen-X tees and cut-off jean shorts.

The Nineties was also the last time the Gap peaked, that it provided the Gen-X uniform before Gen-X built the internet and social media into what it is today then moved on and up onto better ready-to-wear and more upscale fashion brands that best represent them as the New Establishment.

Let's face it, Gen-X has always been about basics.  So, it's no surprise that today's teens and twenty-somethings dumped by the disappearance of American Apparel, are turning to the Gap for basics.

The original Gen-Xer and one of the original Supermodels, Naomi Campbell shows it how it's done.

She's leading the pack, wearing the Pocket Tee in her 1992 ad by Steven Meisel, wears the Pocket Tee re-issue in the film.

"It's an honor to be here, in the same outfit that I wore twenty years ago in my Gap ad," said Campbell. "The creativity in the '90s is something I'm so grateful that I got to be a part of and to see and to learn from and to draw inspiration from."

In this day and age, the new royalty, issues of the New Establishment, are the sons and daughters of the originators of the original Gen-X style back in the late Eighties and the Nineties.

Rumer Willis, Bruce Willis' and Demi Moore's daughter is recasting Gen-X style for her co-horts. wearing the Cropped Denim Jacket, similar to the one her mother wore in her 1990 ad, with the Henley Bodysuit.

Rocker's kids aren't kids anymore.  They're the young, desirable demographics of twenty-somethings..Singer Chelsea Tyler, daughter of Steven Tyler, wears the sleeveless Tee and Reverse Pleated Jeans channeling her dad's "Easy Fit Jeans" commercial from 1997.  

Artist Coco Gordon, daughter of Kim Gordon who wore the Pocket Tee in her 1990 ad, wears the navy Icon Leather Jacket, black short-sleeve Mockneck Tee and High Rise Denim Short in the film.

Pop culture's royalty princes and princesses rounding out the cast are:

Model Lizzy Jagger, daughter of Jerry Hall, wears her take on the classic black Bodysuit that her mother flaunted in 1991.

"The classic look for anyone is not just a '90's look. The white t-shirt and jeans look has gone through the decades and is still around, and I think of that as being really Gap," said Jagger.

DJ TJ Mizell, son of Jam Master Jay of Run DMC, wears the iconic Gap Logo Sweatshirt that his father wore in the "Original Fit Jeans" commercial in 1990.
"I feel honored. Being part of anything Run DMC is a huge honor for me and being able to back up my father's legacy with Gap," said Mizell.

Actor Evan Ross, son of Diana Ross, wears the sleeveless Logo Tee as a tribute to his mother who wore a simple tank in her 1991 ad.

"Gap can transcend all eras. It still feels relevant. It looks like what we would be wearing right now... it is at the cusp of what we're doing right now," said Ross.

With Millennials rediscovering the fit, the style, and the fabrication of Gen-X style, they're proving to the general public that the quality and cut of Gen-X style is timeless enough to wear everyday without fretting about it.