This season, apparel retailers have struggled with how to acquaint customers with a bevy of new and novel styles including skinny jeans and winter shorts, as well as trapeze tops, dresses and coats. As the leaves collected in enormous piles in the yard, "How To" EDM campaigns collected in my email inbox. Banana Republic produced a number of these "How To" campaigns, and I think they did it well. They provided quick, digestable tips (avoiding the temptation to write paragraph-upon-paragraph that no one will read), which, combined with illustrative photos, made casual, work and evening trends easy and accessible.

I feel like Banana's fashions are rebounding a bit after several suck-out seasons. I bought something there for the first time in ages this month - a "wool military caplet." It wasn't inspired by the "How To" campaigns, so I can't attest to their effectiveness, but I rather like the sweater.

On an unrelated note: is anyone else sick of these two models? I'm sure they're nice girls, but I'm tired of seeing them in every campaign. I see these gals more often than I see my actual friends and family...Although perhaps that says something more about my at-the-computer:away-from-the-computer ratio than it does about Banana Republic's model variety.

From: BananaRepublic.com
Subject Line: Fall's best new silhouettes are here...
Date: Tuesday, September 19, 2006

From: BananaRepublic.com
Subject Line: How to wear the season's chic new layers
Date: Tuesday, October 10, 2006

From: BananaRepublic.com
Subject Line: Defining your work style + the classic pump
Date: Tuesday, October 24, 2006

From: BananaRepublic.com
Subject Line: Dress the part(y): petite going-out looks for every occasion + evening shoes..
Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2006