Kafka Was Here

One of Rory’s tee shirts she discusses with Dean has Kafka Was Here written on it, a nod to one of her favourite authors. Two of her other tee-shirts with writing on them are Rock Star and Evil.

Timberland

LORELAI: Luke, Rachel’s not the only woman in the world for you. You’ll meet someone, someday – probably at a Timberland store – you’ll ask her out.

Timberland LLC, manufacturer and retailer of outdoors wear, especially boots, headquartered in Stratham, New Hampshire. Shoemaker Nathan Schwartz bought a 50% stake in The Abington Shoe Company in Massachuttests; this later became Timberland. The Schwartz family retained control of the company until 2012, when they sold it to the VF Corporation, which sells outdoor clothing and workwear.

Although marketed towards hikers, climbers etc, Timberland is very popular for urban attire. The nearest Timberland store to Stars Hollow would be in the town of Clinton, about an hour’s drive away.

Donna Karan

MICHEL: No, I believe you thought I was lying. That I did not actually get down on my hands and knees in a brand new Donna Karan suit and crawl around on a floor where people who have stepped in mud and garbage and animal waste have been traipsing all day long.

Donna Karan (born Donna Faske in 1948) is an award-winning fashion designer, creator of the Donna New York and DKNY clothing brands. She is nicknamed “The Queen of Seventh Avenue”. She brought out her first collection in 1985, and launched her line of men’s clothing in 1991. She left her CEO position at Donna Karan in 1997, and in 2015 announced that she would step down as head of the Donna Karan company to focus on her lifestyle brand Urban Zen, established in 2007.

Chaps

SHERRY: And your uniform is darling, really. I love the blue. Of course, I’m sure you look good in anything.
LORELAI: Oh yeah, you should see her in chaps.

Chaps are sturdy coverings for the legs consisting of leggings and a belt, usually made from leather, designed to protect the trousers of a horse rider from scratches against plants and branches. They are particularly associated with cowboys and the American Wild West, and originated in southern Spain, where they were brought to Mexico, and then adopted by American cowboys. They were common in Texas by the 1870s at least.

Chanel Patent Leather Pirate Boots

LORELAI: Ooh Dad, see if you can find a pair of the new Chanel patent leather pirate boots stuffed back behind your Churchills.

Chanel, fashion brand, previously mentioned.

Patent leather is that shiny, almost plastic-looking, leather, and pirate boots, more correctly cavalier boots, are knee-high boots with a cuff around the top. A pair of Chanel boots of this type could cost around $1000 today. The boots sound suspiciously like something Amy Sherman-Palladino would wear.

Baby Gap

LORELAI: Okay, just remember these are PSATs, okay, so it’s like the Baby Gap, they don’t count as much.

The Gap Inc is a worldwide clothing retailer founded in 1969 by Donald and Doris Fisher, with its headquarters in San Francisco. The Fisher family is still heavily involved in the company, and own much of its stock. Baby Gap is their range of children’s clothes (not literally for babies).

Cotton Dockers

LORELAI: Patty, your timing is excellent. There’s Claude over there. Want me to do some matchmaking?
PATTY: Aw, he’s wearing a golf shirt and cotton Dockers.

Dockers are a brand of business casual clothing owned by Levi Strauss and Co, introduced in 1986. Their pants are cotton chino trousers, traditionally in a khaki colour.

Fossil Watch

PARIS: The period discrepancies. They were pretty blatant. I mean, forget that the nineteenth century didn’t include recessed lighting or the Fossil watch that your server was wearing, but water in that period would not have been served with cubed ice.

The Fossil Group is a fashion designer and manufacturer founded in 1984 and based in Richardson, Texas. In 2001, they bought Zodiac Watches, a Swiss company operating since 1882.

Stella McCartney and Walmart

RORY: Hey Clara. Nice, is that a Stella McCartney?
CLARA: It’s a Walmart.

Stella McCartney (born 1971), English fashion designer, and the daughter of Paul McCartney and his wife Linda, previously discussed. In 2001, she launched her own fashion house, in a joint venture with Gucci, and now has more than fifty stores around the world.

Walmart, previously discussed. There is a Walmart in Hartford where Mrs Forester could have bought Clara’s dress.

Stretch Corduroy and Low Rise Jeans

PARIS: Madeline’s 500 words on test anxiety spends 400 of them arguing that stretch corduroy is the best material for low-rise jeans.

Corduroy is a durable fabric with a distinctive raised texture that gives the illusion of stripes. Stretch corduroy has a small amount of spandex added to the fabric so that it can flex both vertically and horizontally.

Low-rise jeans, or low-cut jeans, are jeans that sit low on, or below, the hips, usually at least 8 cm below the navel. They came into use in the 1990s for both sexes, with their popularity increasing in the 2000s.