In the past year or so, Banana Republic has made a heaping, and successful, effort to reposition itself as a purveyor of high-end taste to the masses. The brand has hired fashion archivist Marcus Allen to tastefully age its clothes, pivoted toward highly stylized, vintage-inspired photo shoots, and launched a home-goods line featuring a cotton-cashmere-silk duvet cover. But perhaps the biggest signifier that Banana Republic is on the precipice of cool is having its garments on a Paris runway by way of Peter Do.
On Tuesday, the buzzy and beloved designer debuted his collection at Paris Fashion Week. Within the line, ten Peter Do x Banana Republic looks were shown, with 28 pieces planned for the capsule collection’s launch next month. Designed by Do with inspiration from, surprise, the Banana Republic archives, the capsule featured ready-to-wear pieces like wide-shouldered, nipped-waist blazers, pleated trousers, elongated white button-ups, and henley tanks in Do’s signature neutral color palette.
The move came as a welcome surprise to some fashion fanatics and admirers of Do: “So excited for Peter Do x Banana Republic,” fashion writer Melissa Michelle tweeted. “Will I buy three of these from the Banana Republic X Peter Do collection? Likely,” editor Mikelle Street wrote of Do’s dress shirt.
Do is, by many accounts, the hottest designer of the moment. While he recently showed his first collection for legacy house Helmut Lang, which was met with mixed reviews and disappointed many, including our fashion critic Cathy Horyn, it seems this collection has brought him back on course. Vanessa Friedman of the Times tweeted that Do saved all his best designs for his namesake line and the BR collaboration. And we agree.
But with the rise of “stealth wealth” and “quiet luxury” dressing, whatever that means, combined with Do’s artful knack for tailoring and reinventing tried-and-true silhouettes, it’s no surprise that these garments are already becoming highly coveted pieces. The collection doesn’t hit markets until October 10, and with a pair of pants priced at $300 and a blazer retailing for $700, gird your coins!