Now at Colette: Gap ads?

Also last week, I was sent the most recent Colette newsletter. I was surprised at the lead item:

“Individuals” – Portraits from the Gap Collection, until October 28th, 2006. A visual exploration spanning the history of GAP advertising campaigns … Limited-edition + numbered copies of the book «Individuals – Portraits from the Gap Collection» are available on the colette eshop in a special luxe, limited-edition format exclusively presented in a denim bag…

Colette is one of the most aura-fied retailers in the world, one of these places that’s always being compared to an art gallery, selling the latest cutting-edge, trend-forward whatever. Past actual art shows there have included exhibitions of work by people like Ed Templeton or Mike Giant.
So why are they flogging Gap ad pictures? Gussied up as “Portraits from the Gap Collection,” no less. Maybe other people are more impressed than I am that the photographers include Annie Leibowitz and Herb Ritts. Not exactly cutting-edge people at this point. Maybe the whole thing is elaborate joke (calling a catalog of Gap ads “Individuals” is sort of funny, given the Gap’s years of success at selling what amount to uniforms).

Or, perhaps, Colette is pointing the way to the edgiest new trend of all: an embrace of mass brands.