Wild Company: The Untold Story of Banana Republic by Ziegler Mel & Ziegler Patricia

Author:Ziegler, Mel & Ziegler, Patricia [Ziegler, Mel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2012-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

Seeing our frustration, Richard suggested a small buying agency in Florence. He thought we might find more flexibility in Italy. One of us needed to get back to the office. I went on to Italy alone. Mel flew back to San Francisco to start on the next catalogue.

Florence was every bit as enchanting as I had imagined: an ancient, accessible city, with a nonchalant, well-worn beauty layered in history. Its language immersed me in a bath of warm childhood memories of spending time with my Italian-speaking grandmother.

I felt a natural rapport with Gerry Zaccagni. From the first moment he ushered me into his office, I could sense that he understood our aesthetic. We set out in his small Fiat to see a military bag manufacturer an hour or so out of Florence. For years, Mel and I had felt that luggage was missing in the line. In the early 1980s, travelers were still lugging around stiff, heavy suitcases or, at best, strapping them to little carts with wheels. We envisioned a line of authentic-looking carry-on luggage that was lightweight, flexible, made of natural fabrics, and every bit as sturdy as the Samsonite models of the day.

My notebooks held sketches of vintage military, mechanic, and doctor bags, and fin de siècle travel luggage. I had recently hired a bag designer to help bring the sketches to life. Niki Skelton turned the sketches into full-scale paper prototypes so that we could get a feeling for the volumes, closures, and distribution of weight on the handles. I now pulled the folded paper samples out of my bag along with my notebook of sketches to show Gianni, the foreman. He studied the paper shapes, then my sketches.

“Va bene, ma . . .” Gianni pulled out a pad of paper and drew his own sketch of the largest bag. “The corners, I think, need to be a bit stronger, no? Maybe . . . ”

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