I am a total sucker for one of the biggest fashion clichés of them all: I want to dress French. Sadly for me, I’m not alone. Take last week after the Banana Republic presentation in New York. The handful of limited-edition Parisian-inspired pieces made available straight after the autumn/winter 2016 presentation sold out in mere minutes.
For all fashion’s ability to chew up and spit out trends, the Parisian look is one of the most enduring fashion clichés of our time. While it’s one that rarely changes, it’s an aesthetic that can never be trumped. Nowhere is that more apparent than during fashion month. You see show-goers who have clearly bankrupted themselves to snap up the latest look-at-me piece, only to be shoved by street style photographs chasing some young French Vogue fashion assistant clad in skinny jeans, a Saint Laurent blazer and the kind of Marant boots that Zara are all over. In the high fashion stakes, Parisian is the trump card and Banana Republic was all over it with their latest collection.
To gather inspiration for the collection, senior vice president Michael Anderson flew his entire team over to Provence, Paris and Lyon to immerse them in the local culture. Vintage photographs and textiles were collected – anything they could bring back to the studio to build upon. It came through in V-neck Breton shirts tucked into high-waisted sailor-front skirts, cropped wool trousers and a neutral cardigan knit set finished off with a navy scarf tied insouciantly around the neck (not to mention all the off-the-shoulder coat styling). It wasn’t all paired back – you could see the experimentation with textiles in an embroidered blazer styled with a razor sharp-cropped trouser. That said, what we all go to Banana for is those wear now, love forever essentials with a nod to the zeitgeist and this time that came through on pieces like a blush-coloured tailored wrap jacket with a tonal fur stole and a bright red trouser suit, subtly flared at the knee. Those brightly coloured pieces were all styled with the neutral fail-safes that have always been Banana staples.
This presentation was a bit of a special one for Banana. It marked a year since it made its New York Fashion Week debut for autumn/winter 2015, under then-creative director Marissa Webb and the French reference was pretty fitting. The whole allure of the Parisian aesthetic is that it’s become the antidote we’ve all developed to immunise ourselves from the assault of transient trends. What the Parisian style represents is not pandering to what people think you should wear or do. It’s about taking the whole ‘forget everything you wearing last season because right now it’s about this’ with a pinch of salt, and buying pieces that actually make you look good instead. That’s pretty much what Banana does so well. It’s not about being the trendiest, about being an early adopter. Their mission is simple: creating great clothes you won’t hate yourself for investing in in six months time. Even their whole presentation set up is different. Away from the craziness of the shows (and the bitter wind that blasted down the venue on 14th Street), models laughed and joked with each other between standing and posing for photographs. Editors and bloggers munched on chocolate and nibbles, taking periodic breaks from taking photos for Instagram only to catch up in the safety of the warmth. Granted, it was Banana’s fashion week event but everything about the set up felt more like a refreshing hiatus from it all.
It’s funny: Burberry, Proenza Schouler, Tom Ford and Vetements are all being hailed as fashion week disruptors for taking steps to adopt a more consumer-friendly approaching to showing new collections but interestingly, Banana was one of the early brands to throw its hat to the consumer-facing ring this season. We’ve all heard the complaints about fashion fatigue caused by waiting so long for pieces to drop after they’re shown at fashion week so to shake things up, at the same time we were viewing the new looks at this season’s presentation, customers online could exclusively shop a selection of pieces at home. That meant that there was zero lag time in between seeing and shopping (talk about fast fashion!). It’s a pretty clever idea, right? The six womenswear styles included an Italy-made wool coat (perfect for the weather right now); a boyfriend cardigan, a metallic fold-over pouch (trans-seasonal, why wait?) and a silk printed dress and matching top. The pieces were sold only in limited 100 runs but will make a comeback when the collection hits stores in September.
Buy now, wear now makes sense for Banana. First things first, it’s one of the few on the schedule with clothes that are affordable and attainable. That floaty max dress styled over that cashmere knit? Probably no more than the cost of a good night out. Feeling that shearling coat? The price won’t give you a heart attack. Want to trade lives with the girl in Look 7. Well, not really, but you get the point. It’s one of the few presentations that, aside from the always colourful and easy, clothes, is all about styling. Perhaps a legacy from Marissa Webb and her time at J Crew but the presentations always cook up inventive styling ideas that completely make you rethink the way you wear certain pieces. You’ll always see peacoats or a trouser suit offset with something pretty and feminine; prints and colour teamed with simple shapes and neutrals; a constant mix of the pretty with the boyish; and a fashion meets classic sensibility running through it all. Together, it worked, representing all of the things that have come to excite us Banana.
Disclaimer: Our editor Naomi Mdudu attended the presentation as Banana Republic’s first UK NYFW correspondent but all views are our own.