Banana Republic will Show Gay Couples to Relax and be Real with real couples on ads

                                                                        

Banana Republic ads are about to get real: The retailer is launching ads to telegraph the idea that its sleek, office-friendly clothes fit consumers' whole lifestyle, not just work.

Based in San Francisco and owned by Gap Inc., GPS +1.10% Banana Republic plans to unveil the new campaign Thursday in stores and online, followed by print ads in fashion magazines' September issues. The ads showcase real-life couples including some people who aren’t professional fashion models wearing Banana Republic clothes for fall in looser, less-predictable ways than in the past.

                                                                  

It is Banana Republic's first campaign styled by Marissa Webb, the brand's new creative director and executive vice president of design. "My goal was showing you can wear a blazer on a weekend or a sweat pant during the week," Ms. Webb says, a way of dressing for what she calls a "360 lifestyle."

"People immediately think of Banana Republic as work wear, but it really is a lifestyle brand that can take you from work to evening," said Ms. Webb, a former head of womenswear and accessories design at J.Crew. She debuted her own label in 2012, and Gap became a minority investor in it when it appointed her to her posts in April.

Ms. Webb said she sought to mix high and low in order to evoke the way people really dress. Unlike past campaigns, the new one doesn't rely solely on fashion models. One features the singer Aloe Blacc ("Wake Me Up") with his wife, the hip-hop artist Maya Jupiter.

"We decided to move away from casting contrivance, where we select a model, put that model with another great-looking model and suddenly they became a couple," said Catherine Sadler, Banana Republic's global chief marketing officer.

The retailer looked to photograph the couples "in a way that felt true, with pictures that have a greater sense of caught emotion, of caught moments," she said. Ms. Webb and the brand have been showing teaser images of the fall collection on Instagram and Snapchat.

"I want current customers and people who don't shop with us today to stop and take notice," said Jack Calhoun, Banana Republic's global president, of the new campaign. Longtime customers will be "pleasantly surprised," he said, because items they love are still available, but put together in a new way.

"One of our big wearing occasions is work, and over time we have probably gotten a little too serious," Mr. Calhoun said.

The new ads try to reflect the needs of target customers, ages 25 to 44, who take conference calls at home and work while traveling. A good percentage of customers are millennials entering the target age range, he said, adding Ms. Webb and the ads offer a youthful spirit.

"Authenticity" is another theme of the campaign, Ms. Sadler said. The brand, begun in 1978 with a safari influence, added "EST. 1978" to its logo last fall, reinforcing its heritage.

—Ray A. Smith