With nothing to lose, maybe Gap should run a turnaround playbook offered by its iconic former CEO.

"I would have huge aggravation for the first couple of years," retail legend Mickey Drexler said in a Yahoo Finance Live exclusive interview when asked how he would fix his struggling former employer.

Drexler joined Gap in 1983 and famously led the retailer with much success for 19 years by focusing on well-made jeans and t-shirts. Despite moving on to become the CEO of J.Crew and now leading higher-end clothing brand Alex Mill, Drexler had some pointers for Gap.

"They are being affected, I think, by what every other big apparel chain is being affected by — too much stores, too much merchandising, too much sales, tons of competition," Drexler explained. "You have got to have a niche, a point of view. What I would do is what I did the first day [there] in 1983. I went to every style in the company, throwing out, keeping in, and renaming everything."

To be sure, Gap enters the second half of the year in chaos mode and in bad need of a leader to take charge. Last week, Gap fired CEO Sonia Syngal after another quarterly sales warning — its second straight material warning this year.

The retailer announced that long-time board member Bob Martin will serve as interim CEO, which garnered approval from Drexler.

"I know Bob very well," Drexler said. "We chat, and he is a terrifically talented guy."

Gap said it expects sales for the second quarter to decline by high single digits. Operating margins are pegged to land somewhere between zero to slightly negative.

Gap's challenges

Syngal was seen as a potential savior for Gap when she took over as CEO in March 2020 from interim CEO and board member Robert Fisher, who in turn had stepped in for ousted chief executive Art Peck.

As the former CEO of Old Navy, Syngal was credited with reviving that important division and moved quickly in her early days as Gap's leader to inject a fashion sense back into the company. That included signing Kanye West to a pricey, long-term clothing design deal.