Banana Republic Old English Wildlife Engraving T-Shirts

Possibly the most famous and recognizable items from the Banana Republic Travel & Safari company, the Old English Wildlife Engraving shirts looked great and were a popular inexpensive item to grab if you wanted to capture the BR magic without breaking your wallet. Due to their ubiquity, they show up on the current eBay market with some frequency and can get pricey because they are so collectible.

Over recent years contemporary BR has issued reproduction shirts that are identical save the tags as well as shirts closely inspired by these designs.

The Old English Wildlife Engraving t-shirts debuted in the Holiday 1984 catalogue on the order form. Interestingly, they were first promoted with a photograph. The first offering was for Elephant, Safari scene, and Giraffe.

My current collection.

The stacked logo seen on the Zebra Shirt.

The pocket on the front had a Stars and Banana crest.

Printed tags.

At only $10 these were popular buys!

Some of these images were sourced from the Dover clip art book of animals.

By Spring 1986 there were six designs including the Tiger, Zebra and Camel.

Summer 1986 brought new designs including the Jungle Scene, Rhino, Monkey and Lion.

Spring 1988 included new designs for Macaus and a Leopard.

The Summer 1988 catalogue did not have any Old English shirts, but the final catalogue, Fall 1988 introduced all-new, color illustrations of Bison, Llama, Kangaroo and Iguana.

Reproductions

From time to time, contemporary Banana Republic re-issues these shirts in various forms; Sometimes the art is on the front instead of the back. Often in other colors and with art that wasn’t used in the 1980s. They did the one below sometime in the 2000s that is more faithful to the original. with the Coat of Bananas on the chest pocket and faux-weathering on the artwork.