Regifting: 3 Christmas Catalog covers
This is an interesting catalog cover because it was actually done THREE different times. The 1984 Holiday cover is a color version of the 1982 cover drawing. What’s really interesting is that the cover was repainted entirely for the 1986 Holiday Update! The 86 version is not the exact same drawing, but it’s a copy that an artist made of that drawing. Kind of cool, you can play a “what’s different” game with the images. The cat is now napping, for instance. All three feature a cameo by Livingstone the Zebra. They also cater to the yuppie intellectual with nods to the New Yorker magazine and the Wall St. Journal. The WSJ shows up a lot in these catalogs. The go-go 80s, doncha know.
Thanks for posting these great images. Every time I go past the BR store in a mall I grumble because it just isn’t Banana Republic. Your website takes me back to those good ol’ days.
I second this.
Great post! I love the catalog cover art here. As a subscriber to The New Yorker, I thought it would be fun to try and find the actual magazine issues with the covers shown in these images, assuming the covers are based on actual magazine covers. I haven’t been able to find the cover featured here on the 86 catalog cover. But I found one New Yorker issue that resembles the cover from the 84 catalog, which came out October 8th, 1984. But the 82 catalog has a similar image, so I could be wrong. The covers could be inspirations too. If anyone knows, let me know!