A Legacy of Pride
In celebration of Pride, we’ve invited four LGBTQ+ artists to create unique works of art, channeling the brand’s spirit of inclusivity through the lens of their own creative vision. Taking inspiration from our heritage, each artist designed limited edition archival pieces into dynamic styles that represent their individuality and voice, as well as reflect our legacy of inclusivity, sustainability, and creativity. Each of the artist’s work will be highlighted at several Banana Republic locations nationwide.
Banana Republic is also proud to donate $25,000 to the GenderCool project, a youth-led movement with a mission to create a safe, supportive space for transgender and nonbinary individuals by providing them with education, advocacy, and leadership developmental skills.
We welcome you to discover the stories of our featured artists below.
Parisa Parnian (She/Her/They) @savagemuse & @savage_taste
Parisa Parnian is an LA-based Iranian American multidisciplinary designer, visual artist, and culinary creative. She uses fashion, food, art, and performative storytelling to build bridges and connect communities. Recently, her creative practice has expanded to focus on projects and collaborations that are more layered, often through the lens of Third Culture Kids and the Latinx, and MENASA diaspora.
What does Pride mean to you?
To me, Pride means taking risks to walk on this earth in our authentic bodies and genders. It means going on a lifelong journey to tap into and honor our own desires, while also learning to respect and honor others whose desires are different from our own. Pride is a journey towards embracing ourselves and releasing the shame and fear that society has put upon us.
How does the art you create reflect your own journey? And, just as importantly, what is the story it tells?
My art is made up of multitudes and layers. It is maximalist, colorful and full of joy. It defies genre and spans the world of design, food, performance and storytelling. There is rich texture both in the visual aspects of my work and in the stories it tells. Like my art, I am a very layered being who has been on a lifelong journey of discovery. The story my art tells is that of resilience and resourcefulness; of living a colorful and rich life that is a balancing act of calculated risks and of lush beauty.
How do you express yourself through style? And why is it important?
Style and fashion have played an important role in my life, both professionally and personally. Over the years, I have expressed both my queerness and the connection to my Persian heritage through personal style, which includes not just the clothes I wear but also my hairstyles, body language and accessories.
My personal style is firmly rooted in the celebration of my queer and divine femininity, with a nod to both my Persian roots and my love and respect of Mexican and Latin American cultures. I embrace vibrant colors, bold patterns, statement necklaces and big hair. I love to clash patterns and wear larger-than-life looks. I am not shy to show off my thickness or curves and I celebrate the fact that I am a womxn in my forties with all the experience that comes with that.
Serge Gay Jr. (He/Him/His) @sergegayjr
Serge Gay Jr is an American visual artist and creative designer based in San Francisco, California. Serge owns and operates his own graphic design company named SergeShop. In his spare time, he is a freelance visual art director who works with film and video production design teams in Los Angeles, California.
What does Pride mean to you?
Pride is a platform to amplify voices. I see it as a way of me expressing my voice and for people in the queer community to express their voices as well. I feel like this is a platform where every individual can share who they are and take pride in their identity. There are so many creative ways to make your voice heard. For me, it is through my art.
Who are prominent figures that have inspired you, queer or otherwise? And why?
I’m always inspired by my friends and by the queer community especially those who have initiated change through their actions. Individuals like Juanita Moore, Cleve Jones, Harvey Milk, James Baldwin, Bayard Rustin. Activists in our time that have inspired me to make a change. They inspire my work. I look at them as great inspiration in my art, especially through a historical context.
How do you express yourself through style? And why is it important?
My style is bold. I love color. My style is a bold statement. It is another form of expression. Whatever I can’t express through words, I express through my style. It is another way to really express that creativity.
Marcos Chin (He/Him/His) @marcoschinart
Marcos Chin is an award-winning illustrator whose work has appeared as surface, textiles, and wall designs on book covers, advertisements, fashion catalogues and magazines. He has worked with a diverse group of companies and has given workshops throughout the U.S. and abroad. He currently resides in Brooklyn, NY and teaches illustration at the School of Visual Arts in NYC.
What does Pride mean to you?
Pride is about celebrating all the parts of myself that make me who I am. For a long time, I was uncomfortable with my queerness. I tried to shove it underneath a type of persona that I was told was more acceptable and normal. I hate that word “normal” because it implies that there’s one standard that everything else is measured against. I changed the way that I walked, squared up my hips, tried to speak with a lower tone of voice, smiled less and tried not to emote outwardly. I behaved in a way that I wasn’t proud of. It wasn’t until I came out—and through the guidance, love, and friendship of the queer community—that I learned how to open-up and become compassionate to the parts of myself that I kept hidden for so long.
How have the visual arts empowered you to live with Pride?
Through my art, I have expressed parts of my queer identity that I couldn’t express before. Some of the drawings I made in high school and art college revealed these parts of myself in a naïve, honest, curious, provocative, and beautiful way. To quote the artist Shelia Pepe, “Art fills in the space where language fails.” This is one of the most eloquent and clearest ways to describe what my art does for me. It accesses the parts of myself—in this case, the pride I have as a gay person—and expresses it in ways that my words can’t.
Describe Pride in one word.
Liberation.
Andy Bellomo (She/They) @andybmix
Andy Bellomo is a muralist and stained-glass artist based in Chicago. Her artistic expression is deeply rooted in exploring, observing, listening, and learning. Her unique style uses line, light, color, and shape to create movement and rhythm, and she has evolved her artwork into creating abstract pieces and large-scale murals. Bellomo is a dynamic member of the arts and a prominent individual in the LGBTQ+ communities in Chicago, continually advocating for social change and human rights with her art.
How does the art you create reflect your own journey? And, just as importantly, what is the story it tells?
I strive to create work that means something to me and to my community. Through my art, I strive to amplify individuals in my community and give them recognition for the work they do. I use art making as a way to find my community, my family and myself.
How have the visual arts empowered you to live with Pride?
I am inspired and driven by the emotional impact other artists have on me. I channel that directly into my Queer Mural Series, which highlights the work of artists and activists in the Chicago LGBTQ community through portraiture. My goal is to make work that lifts others up and pays close attention to the living art heroes in our queer community in Chicago.
Describe Pride in one word.
Family.
In celebration of Pride, we’ve invited four LGBTQ+ artists to create unique works of art, channeling the brand’s spirit of inclusivity through the lens of their own creative vision. Taking inspiration from our heritage, each artist designed limited edition archival pieces into dynamic styles that represent their individuality and voice, as well as reflect our legacy of inclusivity, sustainability, and creativity. Each of the artist’s work will be highlighted at several Banana Republic locations nationwide.
Banana Republic is also proud to donate $25,000 to the GenderCool project, a youth-led movement with a mission to create a safe, supportive space for transgender and nonbinary individuals by providing them with education, advocacy, and leadership developmental skills.
We welcome you to discover the stories of our featured artists below.
Parisa Parnian (She/Her/They) @savagemuse & @savage_taste
Parisa Parnian is an LA-based Iranian American multidisciplinary designer, visual artist, and culinary creative. She uses fashion, food, art, and performative storytelling to build bridges and connect communities. Recently, her creative practice has expanded to focus on projects and collaborations that are more layered, often through the lens of Third Culture Kids and the Latinx, and MENASA diaspora.
What does Pride mean to you?
To me, Pride means taking risks to walk on this earth in our authentic bodies and genders. It means going on a lifelong journey to tap into and honor our own desires, while also learning to respect and honor others whose desires are different from our own. Pride is a journey towards embracing ourselves and releasing the shame and fear that society has put upon us.
How does the art you create reflect your own journey? And, just as importantly, what is the story it tells?
My art is made up of multitudes and layers. It is maximalist, colorful and full of joy. It defies genre and spans the world of design, food, performance and storytelling. There is rich texture both in the visual aspects of my work and in the stories it tells. Like my art, I am a very layered being who has been on a lifelong journey of discovery. The story my art tells is that of resilience and resourcefulness; of living a colorful and rich life that is a balancing act of calculated risks and of lush beauty.
How do you express yourself through style? And why is it important?
Style and fashion have played an important role in my life, both professionally and personally. Over the years, I have expressed both my queerness and the connection to my Persian heritage through personal style, which includes not just the clothes I wear but also my hairstyles, body language and accessories.
My personal style is firmly rooted in the celebration of my queer and divine femininity, with a nod to both my Persian roots and my love and respect of Mexican and Latin American cultures. I embrace vibrant colors, bold patterns, statement necklaces and big hair. I love to clash patterns and wear larger-than-life looks. I am not shy to show off my thickness or curves and I celebrate the fact that I am a womxn in my forties with all the experience that comes with that.
Serge Gay Jr. (He/Him/His) @sergegayjr
Serge Gay Jr is an American visual artist and creative designer based in San Francisco, California. Serge owns and operates his own graphic design company named SergeShop. In his spare time, he is a freelance visual art director who works with film and video production design teams in Los Angeles, California.
What does Pride mean to you?
Pride is a platform to amplify voices. I see it as a way of me expressing my voice and for people in the queer community to express their voices as well. I feel like this is a platform where every individual can share who they are and take pride in their identity. There are so many creative ways to make your voice heard. For me, it is through my art.
Who are prominent figures that have inspired you, queer or otherwise? And why?
I’m always inspired by my friends and by the queer community especially those who have initiated change through their actions. Individuals like Juanita Moore, Cleve Jones, Harvey Milk, James Baldwin, Bayard Rustin. Activists in our time that have inspired me to make a change. They inspire my work. I look at them as great inspiration in my art, especially through a historical context.
How do you express yourself through style? And why is it important?
My style is bold. I love color. My style is a bold statement. It is another form of expression. Whatever I can’t express through words, I express through my style. It is another way to really express that creativity.
Marcos Chin (He/Him/His) @marcoschinart
Marcos Chin is an award-winning illustrator whose work has appeared as surface, textiles, and wall designs on book covers, advertisements, fashion catalogues and magazines. He has worked with a diverse group of companies and has given workshops throughout the U.S. and abroad. He currently resides in Brooklyn, NY and teaches illustration at the School of Visual Arts in NYC.
What does Pride mean to you?
Pride is about celebrating all the parts of myself that make me who I am. For a long time, I was uncomfortable with my queerness. I tried to shove it underneath a type of persona that I was told was more acceptable and normal. I hate that word “normal” because it implies that there’s one standard that everything else is measured against. I changed the way that I walked, squared up my hips, tried to speak with a lower tone of voice, smiled less and tried not to emote outwardly. I behaved in a way that I wasn’t proud of. It wasn’t until I came out—and through the guidance, love, and friendship of the queer community—that I learned how to open-up and become compassionate to the parts of myself that I kept hidden for so long.
How have the visual arts empowered you to live with Pride?
Through my art, I have expressed parts of my queer identity that I couldn’t express before. Some of the drawings I made in high school and art college revealed these parts of myself in a naïve, honest, curious, provocative, and beautiful way. To quote the artist Shelia Pepe, “Art fills in the space where language fails.” This is one of the most eloquent and clearest ways to describe what my art does for me. It accesses the parts of myself—in this case, the pride I have as a gay person—and expresses it in ways that my words can’t.
Describe Pride in one word.
Liberation.
Andy Bellomo (She/They) @andybmix
Andy Bellomo is a muralist and stained-glass artist based in Chicago. Her artistic expression is deeply rooted in exploring, observing, listening, and learning. Her unique style uses line, light, color, and shape to create movement and rhythm, and she has evolved her artwork into creating abstract pieces and large-scale murals. Bellomo is a dynamic member of the arts and a prominent individual in the LGBTQ+ communities in Chicago, continually advocating for social change and human rights with her art.
How does the art you create reflect your own journey? And, just as importantly, what is the story it tells?
I strive to create work that means something to me and to my community. Through my art, I strive to amplify individuals in my community and give them recognition for the work they do. I use art making as a way to find my community, my family and myself.
How have the visual arts empowered you to live with Pride?
I am inspired and driven by the emotional impact other artists have on me. I channel that directly into my Queer Mural Series, which highlights the work of artists and activists in the Chicago LGBTQ community through portraiture. My goal is to make work that lifts others up and pays close attention to the living art heroes in our queer community in Chicago.
Describe Pride in one word.
Family.
