Will You Shop at Banana Republic?

This is a really simple analysis I did regarding on the significantly dropping sales at Banana Republic, just because it makes me curious (in case you wonder why I wrote about this). I'm interested in the reason BR has bad sales despite Marissa Webb's designs actually receive compliments from the media, as I personally think her designs are beautiful as well.

I shared about the Banana Republic (BR) FW15 collection about 2 months ago here before the news came out 4 days ago, that BR described the situation as 'Product Acceptance Challenges'. This news came at no surprise because it always takes time to change direction. Only holding the position for 1 year over, Marissa Webb is now no longer the Creative Director, but a Creative Advisor, which I'm uncertain of her job scope but as far as I comprehend, she's not working full time at BR anymore, perhaps it's because she'll be busy on her own line that is supported by Gap Inc. (BR is also under the umbrella of Gap Inc.), or because BR has a really strong design and production team that Marissa only has to 'advise' on it.

Let's flash back BR's designs from 2011-- from the era under Simon Kneen (5 years) to the era under Marissa Webb, which is relatively much shorter with just 18 months.

I'm picking out only several pieces from each season as there'll be few hundreds of photos if I put them all. Before that, we should also know that people often love BR because of its professional and formal clothes for work, interview and any formal events.

FIRST. SS 2011.

Source: vogue.com

SECOND. FW 2011.

Source: vogue.com

THIRD. SS 2012.

Source: vogue.com

FOUR. FW 2012.

I personally think this is the most beautiful collection Simon Kneen had done, so I displayed more.

Source: vogue.com

Source: vogue.com

FIVE. SS 2013.

Source: vogue.com

SIX. FW 2013.

Source: vogue.com

SEVEN. SS 2014.

Source: vogue.com

EIGHT. SS 2015.

This season and onwards are under Marissa Webb.

Source: vogue.com

NINE. FW 2015.

Source: vogue.com

TEN. SS 2016.

Source: vogue.com

Source: vogue.com

If you could notice, you'd find that the designs are evolving from professional to casual wears, with more and brighter colours, and jeans. As a brand that has the professional corporate customers as its core market, the reason for its declining sales is quite obvious. We always know that people in the corporate are so used to say darker colours make you look more professional. Perhaps BR also wants to attract a younger range of customers, or challenge the seemingly 'dull' formal wears, as Marissa Webb put it:

"The Banana Republic customer is like my father, who took me there as a little kid,

but there is a younger customer who wasn't finding the playfulness,

we became a little bit too serious."

As I see it, BR is at an awkward position between formal and informal. I guess that's the main reason we can't really find something to buy from BR, be it for an interview that you're planning to go or for work. Although it's becoming a norm that many of the modern corporates do not really enforce a formal dress code on its employees, it also remains unknown if younger working people would find BR quite expensive for them. If they are for a casual wear, there are certainly other brands we would go to. Whether it will attract new customers, is still remained as a bigger challenge. BR is not the only clothing retailer that has problem to attract consumers-- us. J. Crew under the creative role of Jenna Lyons, is also facing a much similar problem as BR.

To know whether BR will be successful in changing its direction, perhaps you can ask yourself a question:

If you're not a fan of BR before, will you now be tempted to shop at BR?

Or if you are working at a corporate or going for an interview,

are the clothes formal enough for you?

By the way, it's weekend. Shouldn't have talked much about working. ahah!

#Fashion