LOL i had a go and ordered some stuff from Zara. Just the linen hooded shirt and those linen pants... pretty bad (i know, i was told). The pants are meant to be 100% linen but they don't feel it... fit is really weird as well, like... they just don't fit well at all. They kinda look like women's leggings which is pretty hilarious. Sizing up one might be better but they'd still be shit. The hooded top feels a better quality but the fit is equally bad. I bought a small and medium to test the waters - small is kinda too small to feel relaxed yet the arms as really long! The medium feels more relaxed but looks bad and not in a cool way. No shape to it whatsoever. The pictures make it look great, but maybe if you're a bigger guy and wear a large you can make it work better... but really unflattering on me. All going back tomorrow.
Makes me think when COS get it right at their price it really isn't that bad. I'm just so disappointed with the season so far. Part of me was thinking oh it's just getting started..., but it's now May and everything looks very pedestrian. They tried to make a new thing more interesting in the detail section by saying the jumper had
'a round neck'. I hope with their expansion they're not watering down the weird stuff they try. I have noticed when in store some of that stuff just doesn't sell... so maybe.
Re: GAP. Yeah, some of that looks cool, but with some cash and a good looking model you could probably make a lot of things look cool. The bomber and denim shot it nice tho.
I don't think these were included in the above links but they have some white blue bleached denim which i kinda like for summer. Could look pretty cool once they're worn in a bit more:
zoom in shot of the ass on these things
...no experience with GAP denim though.