Category Archives: fashion

J.Crew’s dramatic self-reinvention over the past couple years is news to no one. Their myriad collaborations with designers across the creative and cost spectrums have established themselves not only as wildly successful designers, but also retailers. More than any other company they’ve helped define the trajectory of the latest resurgence in classic Americana, funneling Red Wing, Sperry, Barbour and others right into the mainstream.

It would seem however, that their decidedly Northeastern sensibilities are about to take a twist towards the European. Watch above as model Mona Johannesson coquettishly prances about, showing off the company’s Fall ready to wear line. Nothing mind blowing, beyond the classic khakis and stripes you’d expect. But the NYT’s perpetually on point ‘The Medium’ column takes a deeper dive. Virginia Heffernan puts it thusly:

The re-emergence in pop fashion of the blue-and-white-striped sailor shirt has been a blessing to J.Crew’s Web site this summer. The shirt is sporty and thus not un-American, while also signifying “Paris,” a new concept jcrew.com has been audaciously colonizing. The site twinkles with references to France and haute couture, and recently it has positioned dissipated and mysterious Euro-type models in the slots that used to be reserved for “J. Crew models” — fresh-faced, wholesome strawberry blondes

The stateside European, in J. Crew’s imagining, wears all our usual American stuff — shorts, T-shirts, cargo pants, polo shirts — but has no use whatsoever for the simplicity and androgyny that used to be hallmarks of preppy…

You don’t envision someone in J. Crew playing lacrosse anymore; they seem more likely to be philosophizing and seducing…

This summer, then, what is the new J. Crew ideal? Not the East Hampton WASP, not anymore. Rather, it’s the sultry au pair watching the children. In sequins.