But the classic tailored jacket is just one part of the company's revamped brand image, epitomized in the striking new "Snapshots" ad campaign that has hit buses, billboards and likely your very own mailbox in recent weeks.

"It was a big departure and that was intentional," says Banana Republic creative director David McLean, the force behind the new look.

"We were ready to make a change." What that change means in terms of ads and marketing is a shift from narrowly defined, single-concept campaigns like "Work" and "Suede" to those that represent a range of sensibilities in dress.

"For me, it was just in the air," says McLean. "I feel like this campaign is much more dimensional, very connected to life and the characters you meet in the course of the day."

For those who have somehow missed the ubiquitous campaign, its images include both black and white photos and more vibrant color shots, all with a family album feel.

McLean says that one of his team's initial inspirations for the concept behind the campaign was "trying to figure out how to express a range of diversity, age, family ... an expression of the people who we feel are our customers."

McLean turned to legendary fashion photographer Ellen von Unwerth, who has shot campaigns for Diesel and Guess?, to capture Banana Republic's new mood.

"[She] has a narrative quality to all of her photography," McLean explains.

"There is always a story there, regardless of what the picture is." The preponderance of black and white shots, he notes, "creates a timelessness and brings a classic quality to the photography."

And Banana Republic is certainly going for classic in this campaign. Using the blazer, from pin-striped to corduroy, as its constant, "Snapshots" portrays the personal styles of an eclectic cast including 70-year-old model Carmen Dell'Orefice and twenty-something stunner Sophie Dahl.

In some cases, says McLean, "we almost let them style themselves so that the individual shone through."

This new cinematic, personality-focused approach is clearly geared toward a more mature customer than Banana Republic has courted in the past.

Vice-president of brand marketing Laura Jacobs insists, however, that "we haven't changed our target customer base at all. We haven't made a conscious decision to go after an older audience. The target age of our customer has always been around 30. We're just refocusing on that customer."

At the Robertson Stephens Consumer Conference in New York yesterday, president Gary Muto, who took the helm at Banana Republic last April, acknowledged that in recent years the company has "alienated our core customer. We became too slick in fashion and too narrow in our focus."

As part of this effort to get back in touch with its core customer, Banana Republic has also revamped its catalogue concept.

Vice-president of customer loyalty Cathy Lewis explains that the newspaper-style mailer that customers received last month - a drastic departure from the traditional glossy catalogue - is another part of the company's move to be "more customer focused."

She explains that they formulated the new concept as "a retail and online driver, rather than a standard catalogue model" that will tempt customers into stores and online by focusing on only a few of the newest and most interesting items. McLean describes the approach as "trying to drive home specific ideas."

Banana Republic aims to start mailing their "book" - catalogue is no longer their term of choice - four or five times a year.

It won't always be a newspaper look though; Lewis says the next one, timed with the holiday season, will be something of a gift guide.

Next up for Banana Republic is the holiday campaign that will launch in November.

Shot by Patrick Demarchelier, the new ads will "keep it moving, keep it evolving," promises McLean.