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Company is coming…Wild Company!

Got some amazing news this weekend in the form of a message posted to our Facebook wall:

“Thank you Abandoned Republic for being keepers of the flame. Coming soon from Simon and Schuster and now available for pre-order at your local bookstore or on Amazon.com the long-awaited memoir from the founders of our long lost Republic. Please visit our FaceBook page where we hope you’ll “like” us.”

Patricia Ziegler photograph by Janet Fries. Wild Company.

This is stunning and exciting news. I’ve always been a little surprised the Zeigler’s hadn’t written a book about their time at BR. In most interviews in the press they’ve  been happy to discuss their roots but mainly focused on “moving forward with no regrets”, etc, etc…The prospect of hearing their story in detail is very exciting.

And oh my gosh, the pictures they have posted on their Facebook page are thrilling. Early sketches of clothing and catalogs, a hand-drawn $5 gift certificate, an original sleeve patch that I simply must own, as well as amazing photos of the first Mill Valley store and the 2nd store on Polk Street in San Francisco.

1979 BR Patch. Wild Company.

The book’s subtitle, “An inspiring memoir…” sounds exactly right. In addition to being fans of the product and stores and catalogs, I think a lot of us are inspired by the story of two artists who took a quirky idea all the way from the Marin County flea market to a chain of stores all across the world. We simply can’t wait to read it.

The Abandoned Republic will indeed continue to carry the torch and dig up what gems we can find, but now…wow. Too cool.

 

About The Author

Robyn Adams
Robyn's fascination with Banana Republic began in 1984 when her Alaskan adventurer father began buying the clothing and giving her the catalogs. She loved the clothes and as an artist she was drawn to the illustrations. She went on to study illustration at art college in BR's hometown of San Francisco and worked for years as a background artist for animation. She is now based in Oakland, CA as a graphic designer and illustrator with Secret Fan Base . She's been collecting and archiving at Abandoned Republic since 2011.

1 Comment

  • terry carter on July 17, 2012

    that’s so cool! I bet that will be a great read for sure. I think it’s great that you took a passion and are getting recognition from the inspiration from it. Might be a labor of love without monetary reward, but appreciated nonetheless.
    I was going to start scanning in the catalogs my mom saved from the 80s but then I found your site and realized, hey, somebody is doing it already. . . and a 1000 times better i might add.
    -Terry

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