U.S.- based Banana Republic is offering its Vintage collection to older consumers who will be driven by nostalgia. At the same time, it is targeting Gen Zs who are in favour of buying secondhand clothes to support the fashion industry in its shift to circularity. Founded by Mel and Patricia Ziegler in 1978, the duo filled their first two stores with safari-themed clothes and as they travelled around the world, they collected surplus clothing for the stores. Then in 1983, Gap purchased the company.
In the first quarter of this year alone, the company witnessed its sales drop by 4% year-over-year and 22% versus 2019. Ana Andjelic, former acting chief marketing officer at Mansur Gavriel, and the chief brand officer at Rebecca is now Banana’s chief brand officer. For this particular collection, Andjelic looked through the brand’s 43-years worth of archives, garments, and catalogues. To gather pieces for this collection, the company joined forces with third-party secondhand sources.
In an interview with WWD, Andjelic said: “It was as if we had opened a treasure chest of curiosities. We found stacks and stacks of really 40-year safari-inspired clothing and T-shirts with logos and photographs and realized that if it was taken out now and put on sale, it would be the most modern thing.
