The Banana Republic Guide to Travel and Safari Clothing Book

This book was published by Ballantine Books in 1986 and it’s a must have for any vintage Banana Republic fan. It’s everything you love about the catalogs in long form.

The clothing illustrations are large and plentiful and the writing is more expansive. The sense of nostalgia and the culture of adventure is reinforced with photographs of historical figures, writers, stills from classic movies that we all pretended to be in when we shopped BR. There are a number of wonderful full page and double page spread paintings by Banana Republic illustrators such as Rob Stein, Peter McGinn, and others.  The forward is wonderful. It describes the creation of the company and the Ziegler’s philosophy. It has several pictures of Mel and Patricia Ziegler in the field and best of all, it has several great shots of the interior of the Banana Republic Stores.