One of the great joys of running Abandoned Republic is when we attract the attention of former employees who are eager to tell their memories of Banana Republic Travel & Safari Co. Recent posts about the Beverly Hills store prompted Lisa Ihnken to get in touch with us. Lisa was at ground zero, working at […]

One of the more fun items to collection are store employee "guide" vests and shirts. These are either hooded bush vests or Expedition shirts with a silk-screened stars and bananas emblem labeled Banana Republic Guide. Probably one of the coolest and highest quality retail "uniforms" ever!      I first heard about these when I [...]

Banana Republic had a Southern California Studio Services Department that served the needs of the film and television community. Born at the Beverly Hills store and then later headquartered in Beverly Center, the department was headed by Louise Voisine who wrote me: Developing the Studio Services Dept. was a dream. I already knew alot of […]

This is not an official BRT&SCo Holiday card, but it’s the next best thing. Our friend Gary Pinkerton shares with us this Christmas card from photographer Robert Castellano who took a lovely winter wonderland photo of the Banana Republic at the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, CO. The card is dated 1999 but it was […]

First, a small collection of photos of Banana Republic Travel & Safari stores I’ve purchased online from news archives.  This is not an official BRT&SCo Holiday card, but it’s the next best thing. Our friend Gary Pinkerton shares with us this Christmas card from photographer Robert Castellano who took a lovely winter wonderland photo of […]

It’s unusual, of course, to see photography paired with Banana Republic clothing. The March 1988 Trips Magazine however, had a 16 page spread of artfully treated photographs of models wearing BR clothes from the Spring/Summer 1988 line. The photos are taken in San Francisco (including one shot in front of the Polk Street store) and […]

Tara Sendelback of GPF in the Travel Books section of Banana Republic (March, 1988) – Photo by Richard Lee, Detroit Free Press. Photo Courtesy Neal Moore Collection. Banana Republic launched the Bookstore Catalogue in 1986, and there were five editions in total, the last coming in 1988. At the same time, bookstores were opened in […]

This article is a guest post by writer and Banana Republic fan Neal Moore. Our deepest thanks to Neal for allowing us to republish this article and the photos from his collection. Follow Neal’s adventures at 22 Rivers. I picked up my first copy of TRIPS magazine at a “safari & travel” Banana Republic store […]

This picture of the original music tapes in the early BR stores came in from former BR executive John Mavrakis, who writes: “Patricia had one of our employees create music cassettes to be played during store hours.  As we began to grow our store base, it was no longer practical to go this route.  As […]

Banana Republic stores often had large fiberglass (or resin) animals on display. I have been told they were produced by artisans that usually worked for the San Francisco Academy of Sciences, although the quality is a little less realistic. Presumably there are examples of this scattered across the country as store fixtures were sold off […]

I was given these two colored pencil illustrations from the catalogs drawn by artist Nick Backes that show the marvelous detail and large size (7″x10″ and 6″x14″). Thanks for the donation from Mike Madrid! These are both from the Summer 1985 catalogue. From Holiday 1985, these incredible colored pencil illustrations of the Kashmir Sweater by […]

Confirmed: This is an employee name badge! I was given this employee badge by Mike Madrid in BR’s design office. It’s a laminated badge with a clip on the back of it, he didn’t recall it’s origin. I found this article in the employee newsletter (below) about a January 1986 Manager’s Conference meeting (In the […]

I found this shirt was found on eBay in February 2021, and the jacket was found several years earlier by Wendy Joffe, also on eBay. They have been identified as fakes by Patricia Ziegler and another BR executive, John Mavrakis. The same result as the Banana Pocket shirt I found. For what it’s worth, however, […]

Happy New Year!! This festive cover of the Banana Republic employee newsletter Communiqué features a celebrating Livingstone Zebra in 1986, how cool is that? Thanks for following Abandoned Republic this year. Keeping up the blog has been a VERY welcome distraction from the tedium and misery of 2020, and engaging with other BR Fanatics makes […]

I found these images on Worthpoint, which archives old eBay auctions. Here’s one I really wish I had known about! A new-employee orientation package along with the original advertisement for the open positions at the new La Jolla, CA store.

Early on, advertising in magazines like the New Yorker played an important part in getting the word out about the company, and attracting catalogue subscribers. Usually, the artwork used was repurposed black and white drawings from the catalogues, but sometimes the art was unique. Banana Republic print ads are collectible, there are a great number […]

This blog is dedicated to the travel and safari era of Banana Republic as defined by the 1978-1988 catalogues. However, the name Banana Republic Travel and Safari Company continued for some period of time after the Zieglers departed. The company moved in a more upscale direction with the branding, but attempted to retain some of […]

An official store flag???? According to the eBay archive website Worthpoint, this printed nylon flag sold in 2016. I would kill to have it, fair warning. I’ve never seen it before but it’s pretty clearly the real deal. I absolutely love it!! If you are the owner of such a flag, please get in touch.

I jumped at the chance to buy a 1986 Mel Ziegler letter on BR letterhead and I’m really glad I did. First, it’s just a great look at what a classy company they were and how Mel’s gift for language never fails to charm. It’s so warm and witty. Secondly, this particular letter points directly […]

Collecting the shopping bags, boxes and other store ephemera is great fun. They put so much creativity into this branding, each one is keepsake in it’s own right.