Preppy News: Banana Republic Monogram Update

Okay – be honest. If you didn’t know that Banana Republic is opening a new line of stores named “Monogram,” you would think that today’s blog headline implies, “Oh, BR is gonna’ be monogramming things. Cool.” Or at least The Princess did; perhaps TP is simply thick and slow to grasp the obvious.

That’s not to say we don’t find the BR Monogram Scroll Print dress lovely, as we do. The BR Monogram silk scoopneck dress is also something we wouldn’t mind having in our closet. And apparently the store itself doesn’t just carry higher end merchandise, but also uses a tonier environment to showcase said merchandise, right down to the Billy Baldwin furniture. But it seems not all are feeling the love for this brand expansion. We’ve seen & heard comments about the quality of the clothing, or lack thereof, with chatter about the clothing’s country of origin, China dominating the topic. Apparently shoppers believed the higher price and higher quality promises automatically translated into the country of origin being the USA, and that is most definitely not the case.

Oh, do make a note: apparently sales associates at Monogram would prefer being called ‘stylists.’ Spare me. This is when Great Aunt Molly’s absence is felt dearly, for at this point in the conversation she would lift her chin just a tad, arch one eyebrow, and say, “Really? They would?” in her classic Back Bay lockjaw. For the uninitiated, this was also the point at which anyone in the the room would internally shriek, “Dive! Dive! Dive!”. (As a rule, embarrassing moments generally followed the “Reallllllyyyy?” question when Great Aunt Molly was involved and the location was a public setting.) And to be fair to the aforementioned BR Mongram personnel, TP doubts they were the ones asking for a change in terminology. It’s clearly something created by the folks at the Mother Ship. BTW if any readers have been to Monogram, *do* share your thoughts with the rest of the class, yes?