Adventure Awaits With Banana Republic's New Look
The accessible luxury label reintroduces itself with a new brand identity that goes back to its expedition-ready roots. Here, L'OFFICIEL speaks with Chief Brand Officer Ana Andjelic about the New Look and Imagined Worlds the brand launches with its Fall 2021 campaign.
Banana Republic embarks on a new chapter this fall, unveiling a new brand identity that encompasses its designs, product quality, retail experience, and digital activations. Looking back to its origins—the company was founded in 1978 by Mel and Patricia Ziegler, who originally sought to offer safari-inspired clothes for the everyday wardrobe—the brand reignites its sense of adventure with what it’s dubbing the New Look.
For 43 years the brand has been an American favorite, particularly known for its business casual attire that places it among the tried-and-true accessible luxury labels like J.Crew and Ann Taylor. After a year when workplaces transformed from corporate boardrooms to home offices, however, Banana Republic is poised to reintroduce itself with a revived lust for excitement and discovery, just as the world is ready for a post-pandemic renaissance.
Defined by old classics like the BR photojournalist vest and cargo pants, a focus on leather and suede, and other expedition-ready pieces, the New Look modernizes those elements central to Banana Republic’s original design ethos. They’re aspects seen in the archival pieces released earlier this summer as part of the BR Vintage collection, which offered 225 original products from the ‘80s and ‘90s. Fueled by this nostalgia, the brand based its New Look from the brand’s old spirit.
“Our approach is less archive-inspired than imagination-inspired,” Banana Republic Chief Brand Officer Ana Andjelic tells L’OFFICIEL. “Archive just showed us what an imaginary world Banana Republic once was—the catalogues and the stores were legendary—and what it can be again.”
The BR Vintage launch was among the first initiatives under Andjelic, who joined the brand earlier this year. It’s clear the Mansur Gavriel and Rebecca Minkoff alumna understands what made Banana Republic tick in its golden era, and what parts of that continue to resonate today. As Andjelic notes, imagination is key.
The idea of an imagined world is central to the brand’s new Fall 2021 campaign, which introduces the New Look. Later this month, the brand will also launch a dedicated Imagined Worlds campaign. But first, the New Look debuts: set against dusty desert backdrops and terracotta-toned architecture, the clothes move with ease as various adventures await for the diverse cast of models. “[It’s] a setting that is beyond time and place and beyond the rules of the known world,” Andjelic says. “A place that reflects human imagination and creativity and curiosity. It is obviously an adventure, but more of a creative kind. We want to convey that the best adventures are imaginary, and they make us human.”
Nods to Banana Republic’s safari-inspired origins can be seen throughout both men’s and womenswear, marked by elevated utilitarian details. There’s a sense of androgyny and fluidity among the styles, reflecting what Anjelic calls our “post-gender or the pan-gender world.”
“Traditional menswear and womenswear categories are very old-fashioned,” she continues. “Fashion consumers make their own wardrobes and they mix vintage and contemporary and inspirations from all sorts of contexts. Traditional gender categories is just one such context. We all feel differently in different situations—sometimes feminine, sometimes masculine, often both—and in the different roles that we play. We want to dress our customers for all their roles and moods.”
Reimagining its own world, Banana Republic welcomes all to its next iteration. While the classic BR look—what Andjelic explains as taking from “the American Look, the safari, and the late 1990s workwear”—will always be present in the brand’s lexicon, American style has evolved a lot since Banana Republic’s inception. “I don't believe there are the [style] building blocks like there were in the past,” Andjelic says. “Everything has gone personal and micro and niche and very individual. We don't have the clearly defined roles that we play in society, we play many roles at the same time. So the building blocks are multiple and they also change as we change.”
Fashion, after all, helps us transform for the various roles we assume throughout our day-to-day—real or imagined—and Banana Republic wants to accompany us on those adventures.
