Walking into a Banana Republic Travel & Safari Clothing Co. store is like making a quick trip abroad. Mood-setting jungle sounds murmur and screech in the background. Safari-look clothing and accessories must be tracked down in and around fake jungle trees, camping gear and packing cases.
Movie set-real rather than authentic, the combination of neutral-toned clothing classics and the ”Out of Africa” fun has fired the imagination of thousands of consumers to make Banana Republic one of the fastest growing retail chains in the country. For creators Mel and Patricia Ziegler, Banana Republic has provided a way to satisfy incurable wanderlust while paying the American Express bill.
”The ability to move, to travel was the impetus behind the creation of Banana Republic,” says Mel Ziegler, 40, a former journalist. ”We were its first customers, true. We couldn`t find this clothing anywhere. But we have always been driven by wanderlust and we wanted to create a life where we could move. It was important to us.”
Travel has been, and continues to be, a key element in the Zieglers`
success. First they traveled for fun. During these trips, they bought classic khaki military-surplus-look clothing, made of all-natural fabrics, which they preferred to the bright, synthetic-fiber fashions popular at the time.
AT LEAST 11 CUSTOMERS
Others were so complimentary of their finds (sometimes parts of flea-market finds sewn together to make a new article of clothing), they decided
”if we couldn`t find the clothes we wanted, then there were at least 11 other people . . . at least our friends, who couldn`t find the clothing they wanted. We didn`t go into it thinking it was a huge market.”
When they opened the first tiny store in the San Francisco suburb of Mill Valley in 1978, the Zieglers traveled out of need to stock their fledgling venture ”because we were buying international surplus and we had to go and find it and buy it.”
”We weren`t entirely sensible,” admits Patricia, 36, an artist and the design half of the team. ”We had the mail-order business; we had these seamstresses in Mill Valley taking apart and putting back together dresses and vests; we had the store going. In the middle of the first year, we decided,
`Let`s go to Rio.` We installed some people (to run the business) we had just hired and went to Rio for a month. We came back and, of course, it was a mess.”
Within a few months, however, Mel and Patricia were on the road again. The trips not only yielded merchandise but fueled the couple`s fertile imaginations, which they poured into their charming catalogue, a witty compilation of facts and fancies about clothes, travel tips, historical tidbits, movie memorabilia and literary excerpts.
The originality and success of the digest-size books caught the attention of Gap Inc., another San Francisco-area company. Gap bought Banana Republic
–then two stores and a mail-order operation–for an undisclosed amount in 1983. Mel and Patricia stayed as president and executive vice-president and chief designer, respectively. By the end of 1986, Banana Republic had grown to 65 stores and an estimated $115 million in sales.
NOT A LARK ANYMORE
Today, the distinction between business and travel has blurred.
It was the Zieglers who created and designed the Traveler`s Bookstores in 17 selected Banana Republic stores. After publishing the Banana Republic Guide to Travel & Safari Clothing (Ballantine Books, $24.95) last fall, the couple hope to add a travelers` magazine. Tourists, they are quick to note, don`t need one.
”We travel more for ideas,” Mel explains. ”We travel everywhere. We like to maintain a global perspective. It is the most fun part of what we do: being able to live on the globe all at once, so we have a sense of Africa, Australia, Europe, the States.
”We are explorers at heart. In the world, there are really no dark corners unexplored. This is what it is like to be an explorer in 1986: You really explore for ideas and concepts and to feel the pulse.
”We run our business by telex, DHL (Worldwide Courier Express) and by telephone. We have more peace of mind (than when first starting) because we have better people. We`re just not desk people.”
The couple spend half the year on the road and look upon home as ”a resort.”
”In fact, we weren`t sleeping well,” says Mel, ”so we recently purchased a hotel mattress for our (Mill Valley) home.” Their frequent absences have cost them the affections of one pet, a cat that left them and moved in with a family across the street.
They say their manner of travel, however, is the same as it has always been: They travel light, pack only the most utilitarian and versatile clothing and never forget to bring along open-mindedness and self-sufficiency.
SAMPLING THE PLACE
True travelers, they point out, are not bogged down by baggage.
”They become one with the place,” try local food, wander local streets and delight in the atmosphere. Tourists, whom the Zieglers disdain, are those who really want to cart their own comfortable world around the globe.
”If I take it to an extreme,” says Patricia, ”a tourist is an American who goes anywhere, but wants to go to an American-style coffeeshop, go to a McDonald`s, and wants bacon and eggs for breakfast. They won`t try anything new.”
No matter how far or how long a trip, the Zieglers carry only a 21-inch canvas-and-leather carry-on bag, an expandable carry-all called a Globetrotter and a legal-size bag with two side pouches dubbed the ”low-profile bag,”
which looks like a working briefcase. All are sold in Banana Republic stores. ”We essentially carry on,” says Patricia. ”We never carry more, no matter how far we`ve gone. We like to be portable. We like to have the flexibility to change our mind and take a different flight.”
Since they favor khaki, white and earth-tone colors (a preference reflected in the Banana Republic inventory), travel wardrobes are easily coordinated and interchangeable. They use local hotel laundries wherever they can.
Luggage is minimized by selecting clothing that can be worn both in warm or hot climates, can be layered and is useful to either sex.
UNISEX CONVENIENCE
”I`m wearing the same shirt underneath that (Mel`s) wearing, an old military-style undershirt,” says Patricia, glancing at her husband. As they did in the beginning, the couple wear and test new styles to meet their no-fuss travel standards.
While visiting Chicago, for example, Patricia wore a sample of lamb suede jeans that will be sold in Banana Republic stores next fall.
”They have been through rainstorms,” she insisted when quizzed about travel practicality. The suede answers a need for ”a rugged pant that could be warmer, yet can be dressy and doesn`t wrinkle. I wanted something to wear in downtown Manhattan.”
Multiple pairs of shoes can be a real problem for the traveler, Patricia admits. Her solution is one pair of go-everywhere boots.
”They look wonderful with a long skirt or with jeans tucked in,” she says. ”They are completely versatile. They are lightweight. I`ve worn them in Kenya in the heat, and low African brush. I`ve also worn them through winter in Manhattan. I just put an extra pad in the bottom and warm socks and they are great in the rain and snow.”
Destinations are selected by whim or for business. Hiking the Inca Trail in Peru made a good theme for a recent catalogue. A visit to Portugal yielded a manufacturer who had the skill and equipment to make a tiny houndstooth-check pattern for shirts the couple wanted for the company`s clothing.
Exploring the Soviet Union was a challenge that the couple made the theme of a catalogue. The country held particular interest for Mel, who also has a strong interest in how Jews are treated there.
”We wanted to see it as it really was,” he recalls. ”That meant getting rid of the Intourist guide and visiting everything from the Russian baths, where tourists are not usually welcome, to meeting dissidents and refuseniks.”
Linking up with an underground artist whose work the couple want to buy and use, the Zieglers were warned by the American consulate that the Soviets would seize their photos and journals when they left the country. Not wanting to lose their travel notes and pictures, the couple cut short the visit by ditching the Intourist guide and hopping an Air France flight to Paris with all sketches and notes intact.
CIVILIZATION, HO
Travel has not been without occasional disappointments. For the Zieglers, the lows are caused by exotic places sullied by blatant commercialism.
”It`s a big disappointment to go to the middle of the Outback in Australia–it`s very hard to get there–and to visit this great natural shrine called Ayres Rock and discover that Sheraton beat you there and built this resort complex bigger than the rock,” says Mel.
”What have they done to Bora Bora?” he sighs.
”Singapore,” declares Patricia, ”was the most wonderful, old-world place. It is now a bunch of high-rise shopping malls. What have they done to Singapore?”
The glories of memorable visits outweigh occasional disappointments, however.
”We were both really moved by Africa,” says Mel. ”It is just so foreign. It`s the quintessential place to go for a traveler from the West, because you really have to suspend everything you know. They may have borders there, but Africa is still a tribal continent. The scale is stupendous, utterly stupendous.”
”You really travel back in time,” says Patricia, ”when you stand in southern Kenya, where there are no fences–where you have hours` and hours`
drive and there are no fences–and still have these prehistoric animals like elephants roaming around you. You really get a sense of mankind`s place on this planet as it was originally designed to be.” —
