Talk:Banana Republic

Untitled
Was this place started in 1978 or '69? This article is unclear. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.60.24.26 (talk • contribs) 02:46, 24 November 2006‎
 * My shirt says Est. 1978. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.131.57.170 (talk) 20:02, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
 * The Gap was established in 1969.

Banana Republic published a magazine called "Trips". How long did it last? I found I had the premier issue, which I think I subscribed to. But don't recall it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.188.33.25 (talk) 16:15, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:BR Jacket 0379.jpg
Image:BR Jacket 0379.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in Wikipedia articles constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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I will never shop at BR because the name is offensive 76.192.144.118 (talk) 23:07, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Byword for bourgeois?
This seems like it may violate NPOV. Is there any citation for this assertion? El Whizzo (talk) 07:47, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

Etymology
Can someone please add in a section or a note or something either confirming or denying its coincidental name with the political science term plzzzz?

Since you ask: I used to shop at the original store, and at the time the clothing was sourced from warehouses full of obsolete military uniforms from countries where there had been a regime change or revolution and of course the despised uniforms of the previous regime were repurposed as fashion items. Anyway, many of the countries were “banana republics” although the really good stuff was from former European colonies in Africa. The name was sort of a joke I was told. This is of course first hand experience and is thus unacceptable for Wikipedia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.0.12.240 (talk) 03:02, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

It’s a stupid name. It was stupid ne and now it seems it’s spreading like an infectious disease. I’m going to add a “controversy” topic if I can dig up enough primary sources of their actually being a controversy. NorwichDaemon (talk) 06:00, 11 August 2022 (UTC)

New Location
Thanks to add Paris, France to places where Banana Republic is located. (opened December 2011)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: No move. There is no consensus that the title needs additional disambiguation beyond WP:DIFFCAPS to distinguish it. I'll add Banana republic to the hat note to help allay confusion among readers looking for that article. Cúchullain t/ c 23:30, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

Banana Republic → Banana Republic (fashion retailer) – Articles "Banana Republic (with a capital R) and Banana republic with a lowercase R exist. Since this is a conflict in terms of a search, it's time to choose which gets the original and which gets the disambig. NintendoFan (Talk, Contribs) 07:25, 9 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Oppose, WP:DIFFCAPS is policy and applies, and the retailer is by far the most prominent topic with this capitalization, with hundreds of stores in dozens of countries. The nomination presents no evidence to suggest that the existing subject is not the primary topic of this name, with this capitalization. bd2412  T 21:35, 9 February 2014 (UTC)
 * so maybe the title with a lowercase R should redirect here? The point is when I typed it in the search I got a page on politics and not the retailer, so maybe we can redirect that to here and make a separate article for the other one.  NintendoFan (Talk, Contribs) 22:38, 9 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I get that it's confusing, but we tend to pay attention to people's capitalization when they search for things and sometimes this leads to things like ice cube for a small block of ice but Ice Cube for a rapper, or, as you've found here, an uncapitalized search getting you the republic and a capitalized search getting you a clothing store. WP:DIFFCAPS sort of documents that. Red Slash 16:41, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm not a fan of case sensitivity. Ice cube is a block of ice and "Ice Cube" capitalized is the nickname of a rapper O'Shea Jackson.  I have no problem with that since the lowercase goes to the object that comes to most people's minds.  It would be difficult to get consensus to move that over sicne the Manual of style dictates use of the nickname over the less commonly known real name.  NintendoFan (Talk, Contribs) 08:17, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * um, the political term is the original (and very well documented) use, the store got its name from that. the store chain is definitely the most common use of the capitalized name, so this is fine as it is. "Banana republic" is fine too, no redirecting needed.Mercurywoodrose (talk) 04:32, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
 *  Mild support [now neutral] - The term does seem a bit generic, and see Banana Republic (disambiguation), Banana Republic (song), Banana Republic (album) suggest the store is not really WP:PRIMARYTOPIC... though it is well represented in Google Books. Hence only Mild support. In ictu oculi (talk) 10:35, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Do you have any evidence that Banana Republic (song) and/or Banana Republic (album) even factor into this discussion? Both are stubby articles that appear to be on the borderline of notability. bd2412  T 17:57, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Further to that, here are the pageview stats: Banana Republic has been viewed 108421 times in the last 90 days; Banana Republic (song) has been viewed 1071 times in the last 90 days; Banana Republic (album) has been viewed 394 times in the last 90 days. Banana Republic gets more than ninety times the views of the song or the album. bd2412  T 18:05, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
 * User:BD2412, on second thoughts you're right - not because of page views (which you'd expect for an online retailer), but even in Billboard the clothing chain is many x more mentioned that the Boomtown Rats' hit single. In ictu oculi (talk) 09:16, 11 February 2014 (UTC)


 * Diffcaps exists, obviously, so here's the real two-part question, guys. First: would people use "Banana Republic" to mean "banana republic"? (i.e., very few people would look for an ice cube by typing in Ice Cube; would people looking for a banana republic often capitalize the title in their searches?) To me, that seems logical, at least to some extent. Second: is the usage of "Banana Republic" to mean banana republic (combined with all other uses, like the album, etc.) great enough to override the claim to primary topic that the current page enjoys? And I'm going to say, probably not. Mild oppose. (In no case should the page be moved to Banana Republic (fashion retailer), though. Banana Republic (retailer) is sufficient if we decide that we need disambiguation.) Red Slash 16:38, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Support. Treating the clothing retailer as the primary topic ignores the long-term significance of the term Banana republic (a single-resource country), which has had wide currency since its introduction in 1904. It also predominates in coverage in reliable sources, as shown by a Google Books search, where the meaning of single-resource country accounts for 16 out of the first 20 hits. The word "Republic" is capitalised in most usage (e.g. Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Dutch Republic, Weimar Republic), so it is a reasonable mistake for the reader to interpret the capitalised form of the term as a reference to the single-resource country.  Renaming the article on the retailer removes that ambiguity. -- Brown HairedGirl (talk) • (contribs)
 * Can you find any evidence specific to the capitalization of the phrase "banana republic" meaning a single-resource country? bd2412  T 12:29, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately, the search tools available to use do not appear to allow for searches based on a particular categorisation. So we have to use commonsense. -- Brown HairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 02:39, 19 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I tend to disagree with that assessment. It is trivial to search for '"banana republic", country', and look through the first few pages of hits to see if there is a statistically significant incidence of uses of a capitalized "Banana Republic" in running text to refer to the kind of country, rather than the company. bd2412  T 05:13, 24 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Without taking a position on the move as such, I would like to add that Banana Republic (company) would be the best title for this article if it's going to be disambiguated. --BDD (talk) 00:42, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I agree that is a better name than the nominator's proposed Banana Republic (fashion retailer). -- Brown HairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 01:01, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Could I suggest Banana Republic (retailer) to make it especially clear and unambiguous that this has nothing to do with, say, the United Fruit Company? Red Slash 03:50, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I understand where you're coming from, but would people really seek that company under the name "Banana Republic"? --BDD (talk) 17:26, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Yeah, it's a minor point. It's just a somewhat confusing disambiguator. If I were searching for the retailer, and I typed in "Banana Re"... and up popped "Banana Republic (company)"... well, you're right, it seems unlikely that anyone would actually be confused. Okay, if the closer here sees consensus to move and likes "company", that's fine. Red Slash 03:22, 12 February 2014 (UTC)


 * Support to allay confusion. -- Necrothesp (talk) 14:51, 12 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Oppose. The hatnote is sufficient, and adding extra caps is unlikely when searching for the lowercase term. Dekimasu よ! 03:59, 16 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Neutral, but "retailer" is more recognisable than "company", and the infobox describes it as a division, not a subsidiary, so I'm not sure that "company" is still accurate. Peter&#160;James (talk) 20:38, 16 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Support : Wikipedia is an international website and the political geography context is far more relevant and a regional retailer. 94.72.203.147 (talk) 12:12, 9 December 2021 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

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Requested move 6 June 2018

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: no consensus to move the page at this time, per the discussion below. Dekimasu よ! 12:05, 13 June 2018 (UTC)

Banana Republic → Banana Republic (store) – This discussion is to move this page to the proposed location Banana Republic (store), then retarget the leftover redirect Banana Republic to Banana republic, possibly per WP:DIFFCAPS. I am neutral on this move request: See Redirects for discussion/Log/2018 June 6 for the previous discussion. Steel1943 (talk) 16:35, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * (Pinging participants from the RfD discussion: Erpert & Thryduulf.) Steel1943  (talk) 16:38, 6 June 2018 (UTC)


 * Oppose. The store is by far the primary topic for the capitalised term, and google also suggest it's the primary topic for the phrase with any capitalisation (but this is less clear). WP:SMALLDIFFS makes it clear that differences in capitalisation are acceptable when hatnotes link between them directly or via disambiguation pages, in this case there is a hatnote link to the other capitalisation and a dab page on both titles. Thryduulf (talk) 16:47, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Also, there is no evidence presented here or at the RfD that anything has changed since this was last discussed in 2014. Thryduulf (talk) 16:50, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Consensus can change, you know. Also, WP:GOOGLE isn't a valid argument in terms of capitalization.  Erpert  blah, blah, blah... 17:38, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * When you look at the Google Results it's clear that every capitalised usage in the first 5 pages (I dind't go further) is referring to the clothing retailer, those few results that are uncapitalised are all referring to the republic. If you want to change consensus you need to demonstrate that something has changed since it was last discussed - you haven't (and as far as I can tell, nothing has). Thryduulf (talk) 17:52, 6 June 2018 (UTC)


 * Comment. I'm fairly neutral on this. I think one large factor to consider is that use of the term has skyrocketed in the past 16 months in that Donald Trump's presidency has been very frequently been compared to or described as a banana republic, and a lot of people, including younger generations, aren't aware of the meaning of the term beyond the store. Banana republic is of course the PRIMARY term overall, but it's meaning has been usurped in the popular mind for the last 40 years by the stores. What are the policies and guidelines in this sort of situation, given the only difference is capitalization? Softlavender (talk) 01:12, 7 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Oppose. The status quo is appropriate here. Rreagan007 (talk) 05:08, 7 June 2018 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.