Banana Republic

“We were only going to be able to sell these kinds of things if they had stories attached to them.”

“We went back to the chronic library and said, where did you get that jacket? And I guess that was the extent of the research that made us realize that This is what we ought to do. We ought to find more stuff like this and sell it.”

“We found a store in the back street in Mill Valley that was available because the door had to remain unlocked because people had to go through the store to an Aikido studio, which was upstairs. As long as the door remained unlocked it was available to, we coul…”

“Oh, it was a couple million dollars. It wasn't very much.”

“I didn't think the price was communicating the value of this shirt, so we put up the sign, we're there looking stylish in these shirts, and now it's 1295, which was a lot of money in 1978. We were swamped.”

“For years we ate from the dollars in the envelope. We would basically take, open enough envelopes.”

“The magic number was a million dollars. We wanted to make a million dollars. Five years. We'd give it five years.”

“But he said, I will, as long as you're profitable, I will completely fund it, and you're on your own. I'm not going to tell you what to do. You have complete creative control.”

“And I think what was going on is that Mickey was eyeing the success of Banana, and, ah, wanted to get his hands on it.”

“I know it was, at the most it was 75.”

“In fact, there was a whole, the Limited started a line called Outback Red that was really a copy of Banana at a lower price.”

“I knew that we'd really need half our customers to be women because they would spend more on clothes than I thought men at that time.”

“There were lines there. It was the highest grossing store in the mall.”

“And for years, they just kept bringing one crew after another, and the company just kept flailing for years and years and years.”

“Oh, I would say mostly luck. We say go with the flow, but don't forget to row. I mean, in a sense being in the right place, being born at the right time.”

“Every single competitor, Vineyard Vines, J.Crew, Banana Republic, just go on. Everyone led their 2019 spring campaign with shirts meant to be worn on tuck.”