ISO50

I’m a fan of what J. Crew has done in recent years, particularly in the past year. Walking through J. Crew used to be the equivalent of having mayonnaise on white toast, but now it’s genuinely, if moderately, interesting. That said, lines like “J. Crew has become less of a product line and more of a sensibility” sound naive at best. J. Crew is a sensibility in the same way that Wal-Mart is a sensibility, little less and little more. It’s a clothing brand and a commercial venture on a *mass* scale. It doesn’t take away anything from the new-found taste that J. Crew have been able to imbue in their design to say that they’re just as cynical and unfeeling a vendor of goods as any other. To propose that they’re something more is to play the role of what I believe people call ‘a tool.’

I’ll take Uniqlo over J-Crew any day of the week.

J. Crew has some great style for the price

This write up is very interesting to me. I think J-Crew is nothing like what it was even in the early aughts. You could find unique clothing there, and I often did, but now it’s nothing more than broken-in khakis and shirts with special washes to make them soft (along with their dressier work stuff) season after season. The catalog and website are admittedly more exciting than what I actually see in stores, but it’s all too expensive for what it is ($100 Levi’s in boring cuts and washes, $150 Timex watches). I do like how they are representing/branding themselves these days, but actually going in the stores…it’s all the same boring stuff. For men at least. I feel like they’re still pandering to yuppies who don’t have their own sense of style.

Thanks for your assurance, Scott- I have the utmost respect for you and your associates.

Nonetheless, I feel J. Crew is nothing more than a simulacra of an urban indie aesthetic. I had hoped that the hosts and patrons of this site, which is about taste and style, would think twice about glorifying this homogenized caricature of ourselves, targeted to American Mall Culture.

Plus, their clothes don’t fit me, either.

An interesting thing about the branding… I almost skipped over this post since you opened with a picture of the logo and I have no interest in J. Crew. Then I read it anyway for some reason and found it pretty interesting, particularly the shots of the liquor store. If you would have opened with those pictures I would have started reading immediately. That kind of makes Spade’s point about not always using the branding, doesn’t it?

Nice column idea.

I think that I can stop taking myself seriously seeing that Andrew here is doing more than enough of a job for two people all by his lonesome. (A generous hint – its not what you say but how you say it)

I thought that this post was great. I’m finally at 28 paying attention to the clothing that I wear and looking my best, after years of a casual attitude to style and relying on gifts or items I bought solely for function, so this post is directly in my area of current interest. In the larger sense I would add that anything or anyone can create art/design/style to be looked at objectively without need to inject politics into the discussion.

Freaking love J.Crew. Minimalist clothing? Heck yeah.

Not only was this post interesting, I enjoyed reading all of the comments as well. I subscribe to a small handful of clothing lines that I find interesting, such as Fred Perry, not because I necessarily wear them [ haha, too broke ] but because I love the overall aesthetic and despite not being a huge commercial name, they are continuing to do something different that works [ for the most part ].

I for one am looking to reading more posts like these. Unlike most 22-year-olds my age, I am very interested in styling myself in clothes that are laid-back and comfortable and paying attention to what I wear. The neon colors and crazy logos are nice and all but I’d like something different.

Funny, I worked for an artist who had a studio right around the corner from there…never new it was a j. Crew shop! I always just assumed it was some small boutique.

Shane,

That’s exactly what J.Crew wants! They’ll do anything possible to get into your head.

J.Crew’s backbone is as good as broken and they’re trying their best to take their name out of context and make up for all those years of being “white bread and mayo”.

I wouldn’t glorify (re: retail genius) this anymore than smart marketing survival techniques.
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“How many brands that got bigger got better?”

Andy Spade may think that J.Crew is “better”, but that would have to mean that at one point it was “bad”. Anyone who knows J.Crew has to agree that they had plenty of appeal at one point in their 17 years as an apparel company. I think the author and several others here have happily recalled their run-in with the brand.

Maybe it’s just a matter of words, but I’m one for clear communication. Sue me, I work in advertising. I think that instead of using grandiosity to sell what’s going on with J.Crew that Mr Spade should just be honest – J.Crew couldn’t hold it’s prestige, lost some of it’s market, and needed to make a huge change. That whole better thing is relative.

Sure J.Crew has somehow made itself appealing to SOME people but marking them in their Golden Age confuses me. I think there would be some hardcore rowers that despise the new look… would call it satisfying only to trend seekers.

I don’t wear J.Crew but I had respect for the brand. It appealed to certain people in certain circles. Now, it’s supposedly a more casual man who looks as if he may have some dirt under his fingers nails (denim on denim). Kinda like a guy who wears a beard to protect himself from thinking (or having other’s think) he’s a sellout despite the corporate paycheck.

Most people create a persona rather than be a person, and I don’t think J.Crew is any different. Let’s talk about this in 10 years after Spade’s ideas have worn thin, and there’s a new CD with “better” ideas.

“It’s odd that people think they have to brand everything with their own name to be successful.”

Oh really, isn’t that how successful brands work? Otherwise it’s a different brand.

I am picturing Spade in the boardroom listening to, “..our company is near dead, we need a change, a big one, even if it means taking our name off all our clothing and hopping the tracks.”

“I love brands that show humility and don’t try to be all things to all people.”

J.Crew was never “everything to everyone”. At least not in Detroit. Maybe Ann Arbor, Birmingham, or Grosse Pointe, but not in Detroit. With this new rather cool “retail idea” sans a brand makes them virtually nobody, unless of course they are trying to appeal to every man be being solely a “men’s shop”… oh wait.