The Sudden Fall of Banana Republic

You’ve got it wrong—it was not considered wildly original and glamorous. It was kitschy and not unreasonably priced.

Banana Republic was not exactly "original." They were in a category with J. Crew, LL Bean and Lands End, all offering casual clothing with a somewhat "preppy" twist, the kind of clothes that try hard to be relaxed and casual.

According to the video, it was considered "bohemian" in the few short years between the store's opening in 1978 and its acquisition by Gap Inc. in 1983

Exotic, lol. It was “mall trousers for Gen X white dudes” by the 1990s.

It was a standard colonialist-themed mall store. The Bombay Company for chinos.

I prefer shopping at Shot Down Over Ecuador, Jr.

OP- My banana 🍌 is not going down . In fact it’s going up right now 🍆.

It was the opposite of glamorous, but the quality and sales were good for a few years long ago.

R5 gets it better than Op and the lame video.

A fake jeep is not glamour!

My plantain is bigger and harder, r7.

It’s not a clothing store, it’s a destination!

R11 Unless you’re Rocco Steele I may have you beat.

I'm better looking r12.

Ha! I actually still have a shirt I bought from the pre-Gap Banana Republic. Decades later it still holds up really well. I vaguely remember the jeep in the store when I bought it. I think it was the one in Beverly Hills

Jeep: Beep, beep!

R14 ha

BR actually had good quality stuff years ago - but I suspect with everything the quality has declined while prices haven't.

They still have some nicely cut stuff. You could do worse.

They probably do need to rebrand though - I don't find the name offensive, but it doesn't bring really evoke any positive thoughts or feelings.

They should absolutely rebrand, maybe BR-549.

There are only so many times a label can be revived. Maybe it should just go gently and make way for newer, fresher brands.

I thought the OP was referring to the United States, not the retailer. Carry on!

I also remember when Banana Republic first emerged in the 1980s. The fashion sense was throwback to 1930s explorer/world traveler. Think Indiana Jones. And yes, it was a bit pricey but the quality of the apparel was pretty good. I still have a shirt, a sweater and a cargo pants from back then, and where them from time to time. I think they had to change their business model because the novelty of the old-timey fashion was wearing off, and they had to change to stay relevant.

In the 90s it was like a slightly upscale version of The Gap--the clothes were pretty dull but unobjectionable for the era, and they were of much better quality--but also more expensive. (I think they were owned by the same company.)

Weren't they usually across from a&f in the malls

I bought a Banana Republic sweater at Costco last winter. So I'd say they're doing fine.

r24 Banana Republic satisfies the lofty fashion standards of Costco? Well by golly then count me back in!

I loved BR because everything looked so clean cut. I knew my exact size in it clothes and could pick up nice items on sale.

And then suddenly, everything in the store started looking so drab—black and grey. Nothing original

I don't get this. Banana Republic in the mid-80s was a kitchy safari-themed mall store. By the 90s they were a more expensive, suaver version of The Gap (which had also abandoned its quirky 70s roots), just as Old Navy was the cheaper version of The Gap. And where's this idea that Banana Republic disappeared coming from? I bought some pants and t-shirts there this past winter: good quality, good fit.

Wait til the less informed here, such as Op, find out that A&F was originally an outfitter for explorers and hunters. The “original model” for Abercrombie was some guy named Teddy Roosevelt.

I buy business casual clothes from Banana Republic when they have sales to wear to work .

The Sudden Fall of R29

I didn't fall. I slipped.

"Most people don't realize it still exists"....

Oh, brother.

What’s wrong with the quote?!

—Yogi Berra

Their downfall was when they denied Faye a credit card.

"You don't know what hard feelings are until I come out publicly against your company and you'll see how much you sell!".

She threw a fit, but at least she didn't throw a salad!

In 2007, plenty of young store employees would reply to Dunaway’s “Don’t you know who I am?” with, “I honestly don’t.”

2007’s COUGAR CLUB was no CHINATOWN

Who IS that alien faced hag R37?

I have a couple of their catalogs from 1984. It was all water color illustrations and passport stamps and vivid descriptions on sepia paper, a combination of vintage army, stockpiled surplus and reproductions of classic Safari wear. So many versions of khaki shorts but not an ounce of polyester. Shame they didn’t stay niche. The clothes really were high quality.

R37 Why must you bring up that movie? What about the movie she did with Marlon Brando? Why don't you talk about Johnny Depp? And Emir Kusturica?

So, did J Peterman borrow the Banana Republic style of drawings and stories in the catalog? Seems similar.

Seems like it.

If you search for “Abandoned Republic”, there’s an archived (?) website devoted to the original concept. It seems to be called “SecretFanBase.com” now. Has scans of the old catalog product pages and history and memorabilia.

GAP bought it in 1984, kept the original owners on and their concept but panicked after the late 80s stock market crash and retooled everything which resulted in the current bland, boring clothes.

^^ That site with the initial catalogues is fascinating : )

Meanwhile the Trump administration hires like old Abercrombie.

The website R42 refers to has great examples of their (to me at the time) unwearable gear full of unnecessary pleats, plackets, buttons, etc. Very mid 80s mall extravagance.

I have come here to say that BR is my last hope for work clothes. I’m a 60-year old lesbian who is fit and a professional. There is nowhere else to shop. If I want to wear acrylic, highly patterned, poorly structured, generic dresses, there are a plethora. I’m not even sure that there is a company that makes women’s professional clothes any more and if someone knows of one, please help a friend out.

Ann Taylor or Talbots. ;)

Great find R45! The entire BR collection basically repeats itself every five pages lol.

Had some GREAT sales back in the day.

I had no idea that back in the day, the Banana Republic catalog was just like the J. Peterman catalog. I think BR still has great workwear and some classic styles. I'm not opposed to fast fashion, but some things ought to last for more than a year.

I remember the jeep, a lot of fake foliage, a little bridge over a nonexistent water way and piped in nature sounds. Amongst the chinos and r-shirts. If they didn't sell pith helmets they were definitely part of the aesthetic. It was high camp in a retail setting, something rarely seen, ever.

Gap killed all that uniqueness. 15 years ago they had a full line inspired by Mad Men, just the opposite of what they once aspired to. I haven't set foot in one in over a decade. It's not even a shadow of what it once was, it's something totally different.

T-shirts not r-shirts lol

There are no words for how much I adore R6.

I first heard of Banana Republic when Oprah featured their pashminas in her Favourite Things show. I recall they were in pink and blue, and in specific tones that didn’t really flatter Oprah herself.

I always thought of Banana Republic as overpriced business casual clothes for men. At least, that's what is was from the late 90s onward. I did like their black, Pima cotton tees around 20 years ago, but they were expensive for what they were and stretched out terribly after a year or so. Any that I have still are used as night shirts and could basically double as sack dresses if I ever decided to start cross-dressing.

Tight little Pima cotton tees so we can show off our pecs?

[quote]The video explains where it all went wrong.

No in-house playlist.

BR fell into the Gap. The end.

"Wildly original and glamorous" seems far off the mark from what I recall. I only became aware of the brand in 1983 the year Gap purchased it. There were, as I recall, vestiges of a safari adjacent theme. And I don't recall the original style of catalogues with the hand-drawn illustrations and J. Peterman-esque copy. A very preppy female boss was keen on the brand in 1983 and its safari jacket and explorer hat regalia, which she noted was the origin of the brand which had already gone a little more conventional I gathered. It started popping up in shopping malls and later city centers from about this time. I think there was still some element of jungle theme to the store decor, less to the sales stock. It was very khaki and not my thing.

Over time it became more conventional and eventually landed somewhere near a less tweedy, trimmer fitting version of Brooks Bros. It was hit or miss. One visit and there would be many choices, a few months, bad choices. Later I would suppose one of its main competitors was J. Crew and for a while they seemed two sides of the same coin. At some point both of them seemed to have troubles and never quite hit on a strong image again, I would pass a BR store and it seemed to be trying on some new idea every few months.. Banana Republic's fall is surprising only in that it was so long in coming.

R59 reposting his Cliff Notes version of history.

Jack from Will and Grace

R61 I was actually thing the same scenario myself.

"It's just about the banana."

They had a "Mad Men" collection about 15 years ago.

They had a madman in the jungle collection about 45 years ago.

Veddy veddy strange

[quote] They had a "Mad Men" collection about 15 years ago.

Hollywood and fashion love the Mad Men style, but even during the 00s-vintage craze, it never took off among women. In the age of Casual Friday, they’re willing to wear Spanx, not waspies and corsets.

Nebuchadnezzar was not part of the collection …ahem.

Which was not*

Some autocorrect that was, Muriel 😵‍💫

Why is it that the BR staff changes so quickly? You rarely see the same person working there two times.

You’ve been inside more than once in the past X years?

They worked with much higher-quality materials in the 1990s. It really made all the difference.

I stopped shopping there after years of being a loyal customer when, around 3005 or 2006, I had several pairs of pants all lose their hem. So I'd end up with a pair of pants where one leg was a 31 inseam and the other leg on the same pair of pants a 35. I looked like I had one leg drastically shorter than the other because one leg had a nice break on it while the other leg had far too much fabric bunching up at the ankle and dragging on the floor. If it had been just once, no big deal. A fluke. A second time? Not good but not the end. But a third pair--all bought seasons apart--coming unstitched at the hem? WTF? I've only had that happen with their pants and never had it happen since. Shitty stitching, shitty clothing.

I remember being a kid in the 80s and going into their stores. They actually had straw mixed into the cement flooring. I didn’t really start shopping there until I had to buy work clothes in my twenties and thirties.

But now their clothes are just way too over-priced for the blandness they offer. And the fit was way off. At first I just shopped at Club Monaco instead until they became super shitty as well. Then I went full on fast fashion with staples from Uniqlo and fun stylish pieces from Zara. I see Zara style shirts at BR for $130 (and you know they aren’t that much better).

The Zara in Barcelona is like heaven with their seemingly 39€ price for everything and they carry absolutely everything Zara makes. And Uniqlo used to have the absolute BEST fitting pants with their colored skinny elastic jeans which I am so pissed they just stopped making.

R46 Zara would work with some of its assortment. They have a blazers, pants and great scarves & accessories. Price point is better too.