saint joan

See the 1989 Gap Ad Starring Joan Didion

Photo: Annie Leibovitz/Courtesy of Gap Inc. Corporate Archives.

Yesterday, the New York Times’ Alexandra Jacobs called Joan Didion to see how she felt about people losing their minds over her Céline ad. (Her response: “I don’t have any clue. I have no idea.”) Instead, she calmly reminded Jacobs that the campaign was not her first rodeo: In fact, she appeared in a Gap ad in the late ‘80s.

Here’s that ad. It was shot by Annie Leibowitz in 1989, as part of Gap’s ongoing “Individuals of Style” campaign. (It later appeared in a 2007 exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery.) It features Didion and her late daughter Quintana Roo, who passed in 2005, in matching black Gap turtlenecks — and is labeled simply: “Original.”

Here’s the 1989 Gap Ad Starring Joan Didion