Banana Republic and J. Crew are my two favorite retailers, as mentioned in my preveious blog. I decided to focus on Banana Republic for this blog because after researching I discovered its very interesting history, and its tremendous growth over the years.
Banana Republic orginally began in 1978, and was created by husband and wife Patricia and Mel Ziegler. Mel purchased a British Burma jacket, which Patricia wanted to put her own special twist on. She wanted to minimize its military look to inturn show off how sensible and comfortable it would be as an everyday garment. They recieved many complements from friends and family. This encouraged and inspired them to create the first Banana Republic in 1978, in San Fransisco, as a Travel and Safari Clothing Company. Banana Republic was mainly an outdoor store from 1978-1983, and mainly appealed to the 25-44 year old fashion community.
In 1983, Banana Republic and and Gap, which was originally founded in 1969, decided to combine forces and begin their "casual luxury" line and journey. In 1988, Gap got a new management team which changed the traditional khaki style, to include more casual, cruiseline, and bright colored apperal. In the early 1990s, the chain expanded to 162 stores nationwide. New lines were added to include variety such as sleepwear, accessories, and more men and women office options. Old Navy was added to this chain in 1994.
Today, Banana Republic is known as an innovater for specialty merchandise, and a marketer of a lifestyle. The company now operates almost 400 Banana Republic stores in the US, and almost 25 stores in Canada. Petite sizes have also been added to increase sales so that more of their target customers could adequatly start shopping in this chain.
http://students.kennesaw.edu/~dap1183/History.html
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Banana-Republic-Inc-Company-History.html
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