From the introduction to the 4th Catalogue, comes a great statement of the founding principles of Banana Republic: “When our first catalogue appeared in 1978, we gambled that there were others who shared our interest in functional, classic safari-style clothing, others who had as much difficulty tracking down these hard-to-find clothes as we did. We […]
The 1982 catalogue No. 10 isn’t listed by season, but I’d guess it’s a Summer/Fall catalogue since there is a 1982 Gift Catalogue for the holiday season. The cover features a wonderful cozy safari lodge scene with mascot Livingstone Zebra in the center, a pith helmet on the chair . Inside, it opens a welcome […]
Presumably, this flier was sent to recent subscribers to the catalogue, because there is a message from Mel and Patrica Ziegler, which opens with “We hope you enjoyed your first catalogue…” The flier folds down to the size of a catalogue cover, in this case the 1985 Summer Wanderlust issue, and opens to poster size. […]
I have the Summer 1983 catalogue in the standard newsprint and also a glossy paper version, the first and only glossy BR catalogue I’ve ever seen. As you can see the newsprint version is announcing the opening of the new Stanford store, so I am left to assume it came out after the glossy which […]
This 1980 Fall/Winter catalogue features the first cover with a classic product still life scene. Patricia Gwilliam Ziegler spent a lot of time on this wonderful drawing of a cabin filled with luggage and clothing, his and hers safari jackets hung upon the door and Mel’s typewriter in the corner next to a camera and […]
I first saw this piece in an in-store framed picture and assumed it was a catalog cover like the other framed pictures in my collection. When I finally got to see the whole piece it was revealed that all of the product was only available in the Mill Valley or Polk Street stores and not […]
The 1987 Holiday Catalog (No. 34) and it’s update was the last holiday catalog Banana Republic did. The cover illustration by Rob Stein is a marvelous painting of the “Giftbook” with a handwritten shopping list and a pencil refracted through the shopper’s eyeglasses.
Possibly the best of the Christmas covers, this amazing illustration by renowned Bay Area painter Chester Arnold captures the spirit of BR adventure and the joy of Christmas giving. A sleigh loaded with the colorful new BR gift boxes has just departed the BR North Pole Expedition camp and Santa has traded in his red and […]
This is a rare treat. Mike Madrid generously sent me a copy of this catalog for the archive. I knew it would be duotone printed on newsprint paper, but I was really surprised that it was not trimmed like a standard BR catalog; it’s a printer’s sample that hadn’t been cut yet! This is an […]
Fall 1988 was the last season for the Banana Republic catalog, and the update to  Catalog #38 would be the last Banana Republic catalog published. Mel and Patricia Ziegler had resigned in the spring of 1988, this catalog went to press soon after they left. The transformation of BR’s identity begins in this last catalog. […]
After hiking the Inca Trail in Fall 1986, we hit the Road to Mandalay for Fall 1987’s Catalog No. 33. This striking cover was done by BR staff artist An-Ching Chang. The clothing and illustration continues to become more sophisticated and slick but retains the flavor of classic BR. As usual, there are a number […]
Catalog 29, the Fall 1986 Catalog takes us On the Inca Trail with Mel and Patricia Ziegler. From start to finish, this a is a fantastic BR catalog, one of my personal favorites. The cover is a classic, tightly rendered and harmonious in color and composition. The cover artists in uncredited, sadly, but our money […]
Here we come to the end of the Summer catalogs from Banana Republic, 1988’s No. 36. The catalog introduces Trips, the new travel magazine created by the Zieglers as a bold expansion of the Banana Republic world view. As was reported in this March 1988 article in the LA Times, the new venture was both a vehicle […]
There were TWO updates to the Summer 1985 Wanderlust catalog. The first featured a really fantastic pencil sketch  cover from staff artist Rob Stein. Emulating a well worn sketchbook the drawing is very solid and well composed. The painted dragonfly that has landed on the book doesn’t catch your eye until second glance. It’s really […]
Here’s our first foray into the 1988 catalogs, the last year they were issued. The catalog is full of signs of change at Banana Republic. The masthead now says Travel Clothing Co. rather than Travel & Safari Clothing Co. There are lots of new clothes inside, and it feels like the emphasis is on new […]
This catalog was the first one I picked up when I started collecting Banana Republic items in 2011, and it’s the first one I scanned into the archive. The cover is beautifully done, of course, and it’s perfectly suited to the subject of the Ziegler’s latest trip: Walking through the misty English countryside. The cover […]
Let’s journey into the jungle that is the 1985 Spring Catalog #22…. This is the second catalog that features a travel journal from BR founders Mel and Patricia Ziegler. The first was #19, their African trip. This voyage to the Amazon follows the same format: The journal is written in yellow sections on the sides […]
