>> Gap is still struggling to define itself — and for the first time in seven years, the company is looking at using a different creative agency — it has worked with Laird & Partners since 2002 — for its Holiday 2009 campaign, which could mean an entirely different approach to those simple backgrounded studio shots we've become accustomed to.

But that may not be the only big change on the horizon for the company: Uniqlo's owner, Fast Retailing, which counts French brands Comptoir des Cotonniers and Princesse tam.tam as well as Theory among its portfolio, may be after the American retailer.  CEO Tadashi Yanai recently said that he wants Fast Retailing to become the world's biggest clothing manufacturer and retailer within the next decade: "To achieve our target, the Asian market is the most important and we have already begun to expand there. In Europe and the US it is not realistic to establish hundreds or thousands of new stores solely via our own efforts, so we want to buy a big chain business."

The Indepedent reports that the "big chain business" Yanai refers to has been speculated to be Gap; in response, Yanai has said Gap is "within the scope" of the brands he might have in mind.