Meet the Vintage Guru Who's Making Banana Republic Cool Again

Something’s in the air at your local mall, and it’s not the smell of stale Cinnabon. In recent years, the brands most closely associated with the shopping plaza’s bustling heyday have done a lot of soul-searching. Some have taken the J.Crew route, tapping buzzy new talent to overhaul their entire vibe from the ground up. And some, like Banana Republic, have simply doubled-down on what made them powerhouses in the first place: Hardy, deceptively thoughtful clothing for style-conscious guys put off by luxury fashion’s exorbitant price tags. 

All of which has turned those beleaguered brick-and-mortar institutions into something they haven’t been in a long time: Reliable sources of classic menswear. A decent place to find some pleated khakis, sure—but also the suede car coat you’ll want to wear them with. If it helps, you can think of the mall’s cool-again rep as the retail version of a teen movie makeover, except in this case, the beneficiary isn’t a gawky, bespectacled high-schooler dragged to the Westfield by savvier friends: It’s the mall itself.

To Marcus Allen, the vintage whisperer behind The Society Archive, this is old news. Allen has been collecting pieces from the big-box brands of yesteryear for close to a decade, with a particular focus on the names that once ruled the suburban galleria. (His collection of old-school Abercrombie & Fitch, where he worked as a teen, numbers in the thousands.)

And with the debut of The Archive, a selection of Banana Republic pieces culled from its deep backlog of hits—weathered Gore-Tex anoraks, unfussy button-ups, tricked-out fishing vests, heaps of leather jackets—Allen hopes to present a microcosm of American fashion filtered through the lens of one of its most slyly influential ambassadors.

Ahead of the collection’s debut this morning, we gave him a call to discuss the mall brand resurgence, the peculiar appeal of ‘90s-era menswear, and the case for Banana Republic’s enduring relevance today.

GQ: I’m curious to hear how long Banana Republic has been on your radar.

Marcus Allen: Through Society Archive, mall brands are definitely the main category that I've been collecting for the past 10 years, and Banana Republic is high up there with that group. This is pretty lame, but when I was in high school, my big sister was visiting and we went into the mall and she bought me this really sick nylon zip-up jacket from Banana Republic, which I no longer have, unfortunately. But we found a few pieces that are very similar to it that I was really excited about.

I'm relieved you were able to find a dupe. You also preempted me there, because I wanted to ask you about what we’ve been calling the mall brand resurgence, which has buoyed some of BR’s competitors, too. Which eras, specifically, were you looking at for this collection?

I had done a partnership with Banana about a year or so ago, but it was much less my point of view; we had to focus more on the Mill Valley collection [which focuses on the brand’s early ‘80s catalog]. And this time around, I was actually able to really dig into more of the early ’90s, late ‘90s, early 2000s, some of the things that are more relevant to the way that I dress currently and the way that I was dressing back then. The Mill Valley pieces are very interesting, but they're way more utilitarian because they were meant for a safari kind of vibe. Now we have pieces from that era, we have pieces from the ‘90s, pieces from the early 2000s. Those pieces are so relevant to how people are putting their looks together today. It feels very natural; it doesn't feel forced. 

Why do you think the stuff you gravitate towards looks so relevant in 2023? Is it a natural byproduct of fashion’s constant churn, or is there something else going on here we’re missing?

For me, it's about practicality. I'm based in New York, so when I'm on set I'm usually wearing cargo pants so I have access to things I need. But a lot of the leather pieces, and the other categories of outerwear, the knitwear—it's all so clean and modern. It feels designed in a way that’s done intentionally, but it doesn't feel over-stylized. It doesn't feel forced, or like you're wearing a costume or like you're trying to look super Y2K. It's easy to jump into that aesthetic once you're like, oh, mall brands—but this feels much cleaner and more attainable for the guy who's not trying to look like a TikTokker.

Words to live by. Are there any menswear picks that come to mind off the rip that you're really excited for people to see?

There's an intarsia knit zip-up vest from the Mill Valley collection that's super cool. There’s a striped pocket tee which is super early ‘90s, which I really love. There's also a blazer that I've had in my archive for a few years, before we started sourcing for this. I have one from the Row that's exactly like it; it looks like they were referencing this vibe. It’s got three buttons, it’s made in Italy, and it’s just super, super elevated—and also feels super modern. It’s super ‘90s, too. If you recall any of those old Armani advertisements, it feels like that, or when Bruce Weber was shooting for Banana Republic with Kate Moss.

That era specifically—late ‘80s, early ‘90s—gels so nicely with how people want to dress these days. Is there anything you encountered that shifted your perspective on your own curation? Like, Oh, this is dope, I had no idea BR was riding that wave?

There are these leather aviator style jackets that they’ve been doing from the Mill Valley era up until now. It's not necessarily a silhouette I've ever worn, but we have a really strong selection of them. So those might make their way into my rotation.

It feels almost redundant to say this, but folks really want leather jackets right now.

Yeah, we actually have a really nice assortment of leather silhouettes. They did a fringe jacket, which was actually one of the pieces from the archive that they redesigned. So I have a new one. But I also have that aviator jacket, there's black leather car coat that's about mid-thigh length. There's leather blazers, there's zip-up motos—we have a really strong assortment of that.

The way you're describing it, looking at these various decades of Banana Republic’s output, you can really trace the arc of American menswear. When you talk about the relaxed tailoring, or the leather jackets, or the anorak that you bought with your sister, that feels like an encapsulation of the American ethos when it comes to fashion writ large. It’s simple, it’s sporty, it’s very down to earth. And I'm not sure people appreciate Banana’s role in popularizing that look on a wider scale.

I would absolutely agree with that. It’s been super cool to dive in and kind of see what their offering was compared to what it is now, and to compare it to other brands that have moved in a similar way. It's been cool to see that kind of linear progression among other labels that I'm looking at, too.

Do you feel a little bit of vindication when you see Banana popping up at other vintage stores, too? 

I shop at other vintage places for my personal wardrobe and I think a bunch of them are doing a great job, but I don't really see the attention to fleshing out certain collections, which is something we really champion at Society. It's important to me to have a well-rounded assortment of the things that I'm collecting, as opposed to other doors that don't really focus on that, where it's slightly more piece-y. I like to be able to tell a full story from the brands. And we’re definitely doing that with Banana Republic.

Do you think it benefits the customer to see that full assortment, as opposed to one or two pieces here and there?

I love buying into a story and buying into a narrative. So I like to be able to offer that to the people that come in, and want to pull or rent or shop at Society. That's something that I look for as a consumer. People that shopped the way I do, or people that were in the malls when I was working in the mall as a high schooler, really respond to that. It’s also super rewarding when someone comes in and they get it, they understand what's up there.

What do you think customers will respond to most?

I really nerd out about seeing groups of these pieces together. We're putting the looks together on the mannequins, and I'm nerding out about the juxtaposition of, say, a piece from 1989 with a piece from 2004. I like to see that conversation among the clothing. I feel like the customer will respond to that because I'm just hugely passionate about it. And the graphic tees are very strong. There's a huge offering of different graphics, especially from the Mill Valley collection. I think people will respond to that because they're also pretty thrashed and well-worn.

As my grandmother would say: Did you pay extra for those holes?

Yeah, exactly. Like buying jeans in high school. My family made that joke quite often. But yes, we actually did.

Sometimes you do have to pay extra for the holes.

This interview has been edited and condensed.