"Thanks!" to many of you, including Irina & Desert Flower, who shared the following email from J.Crew this morning.
Happy Halloween everyone!!! In honor of Halloween, it might be fun to have a post on what we plan on wearing today. :)
As for me... My outfit centers around the Wool Oxford Jacket in Bright Flame from J.Crew, finished off with their Perfect-Fit Stripe Boatneck Tee and Matchstick Denim in a dark wash. Ultimately, I want to be comfortable while passing out candy to my little trick-or-treaters.
This post (of weekly posts) is for individual members who want to swap/sell/share among yourselves. This post is where you can mention your items and outside listing/ auction site (like eBay and eCrater & the corresponding user ID).
This post (of weekly posts) is for individual members who are looking for and interested in buying certain items. Please feel free to share a J.Crew store location and/or your outside listing/ auction site if it matches the requests made in this post.
If you are stopped by a J.Crew store this past weekend to see what's available (if anything!) in the FALL sale, or to see some new FALL/WINTER arrivals {sigh!} in person, maybe you might be willing to share that with us in this post. In particular, if you could share with us a few of the noteworthy items that are available, at what prices, and potential sizes the store is carrying (as well as the store location)- that would be fantastic!
A big "thanks!" to Aimee who let us know that J.Crew stores are running a semi-secret sale on the Hacking Jacket in Herringbone (Item 48263; $198.00) for $125.00!!!
If you are stopping by a J.Crew store this weekend to see what's available (if anything!) in the SUMMER sale, or to see some new FALL arrivals {sigh!} in person, maybe you might be willing to share that with us in this post. In particular, if you could share with us a few of the noteworthy items that are available, at what prices, and potential sizes the store is carrying (as well as the store location)- that would be fantastic!
"Thanks!" to many of you, including Life as a cat & shopwithm (in this post), who let us know that J.Crew had a small update to its website today (click here to view online).
As a reminder, today is the last day to take 30% off all sale items (no min) with promo code OURTREAT.
View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.
"Thanks!" to Julia who shared the following article from Business Week (click here to read in its entirety):Where J.Crew Shops for IdeasWhat makes this article particularly interesting is that it not only takes into account the replication of certain fashion styles, but the display as well.
American men no longer dress like slobs. Thanks, J.Crew. But don’t your stylists have a few people to thank as well?
By Roger Bennett
October 13, 2011
In the dead time between lunch and dinner, the second floor of Freemans Restaurant, downtown Manhattan’s culinary shrine to neo-Americana, is deserted. ...
The heavy, tome-loaded bookshelf is a secret door swinging open to reveal two cavernous rooms that contain a bespoke tailoring production line. There is a shabbily stylish fitting area furnished with a well-worn Afghan carpet and a large mirror, providing ample space for the four elaborate fittings necessary to hand-cut a superlative suit (starting price of $3,950). In an adjacent open workshop, merengue crackles out of a clock radio as four focused craftsmen operate under the supervision of a Dominican-born master tailor.
The shop is the latest extension to the Freemans fashion mini-empire, which offers American heritage style with a twist. Even if you are not among its dapper, in-the-know clientele, which includes such style icons as David Beckham, you may have a good sense of what it’s like to shop there—if you’ve ever been to J.Crew (JCG). Indeed, unmistakable elements of Freemans’s aesthetic, as well as that of other boutique brands, have cropped up in J.Crew outlets across the country—nowhere more prominently than at the menswear giant’s New York concept space, Liquor Store. According to Taavo Somer, Freemans’s intense, thickly maned founder, this is no accident.
... Every product is artfully presented, laid out on vintage worktables or nestled between scattered tchotchkes reminiscent of a lost, rustic masculinity: steamer trunks, antique binoculars, and shaving potions.
Somer not only designed the clothes but also painstakingly constructed the fixtures by hand, even custom-mixing an original gray paint shade to ensure the walls reflected the particular 1930s vibe he had in mind. His meticulous care paid immediate dividends. The clothing came to influence—perhaps even spawn—several hipster subspecies: the barman-hunter, the barista-trapper, the line cook–lumberjack. The brand soon added two stores, including one in San Francisco’s Mission District.
Popularity presented new challenges. “When we started, there were not many people doing what we do,” says Kent Kilroe, the store’s co-owner. “Soon everyone was offering clothes like ours and presenting them in the same way.” The ultimate example was the 2008 opening of J.Crew’s Liquor Store. Stylistically, the men’s specialty shop looked almost as if the 450 square feet of Freemans Sporting Club had been reconstructed in Tribeca, brick by brick.
Freemans displayed their product on work-tables and antique cases surrounded by stuffed pheasants, vintage bicycle seats, and classic novels by Saul Bellow and Raymond Carver, among other manly volumes. Liquor Store, meanwhile, piled shirts on banquet tables surrounded by similarly idiosyncratic ephemera: old-time bowling balls, oil paintings of toy dogs, and a complete set of Harvard Classics by P.F. Collier & Son. “They copied us down to the shade of the paint colors,” remembers Freemans’s director of sales, Alex Young. “Every exhibition case was lined with the exact custom-gray shade Taavo had created by hand.”
J.Crew’s head menswear designer, Frank Muytjens, dismisses such similarities as coincidence. “You have to look deeper,” he explains. “We are surrounding ourselves with classic brands—presenting our brand in an interesting way we could not otherwise do.” The Liquor Store opening was nevertheless a lesson for the Freemans team. In the cutthroat growth area of menswear, a $50 billion market in 2010, originality cannot be protected. Mass retailers are able to replicate successful strategies ...
Steven Alan, a Tribeca-based outfitter whose charmingly boyish boutiques could each pass for Wes Anderson’s bedroom, is another merchant who has learned this lesson firsthand. ...
Alan experimented with cuts, fabrics, and weathering to satisfy his vision of “an understated logo-less look with a classic American sensibility.” On top of perfecting his line, he set about identifying classic brands: jackets from Barbour, handmade shoes by Alden, Levi’s denim, Russell Moccasins, vintage Rolex watches, and Filson bags. The upshot? A singular, multibrand men’s boutique anchored by veteran rugged brands. The effect, when Alan opened in 1999, was groundbreaking. In the words of menswear consultant and stylist Michael Macko, “Beau Brummel took us out of smock coats and put us into suits. Steven Alan gave us permission to be rumpled.”
That permission, it seems, extended to J.Crew. When legendary mass merchandiser Mickey Drexler took over the national purveyor of classic preppy style in 2003, he redirected the brand toward an aspirationally stylish yet affordable modern male wardrobe. The washed-out shirt quickly became J.Crew’s basic staple. Alan recalls the time when rival stylists—not necessarily from J.Crew—began to come in his store and snap up his inventory with corporate cards. “It really bothered me at the outset,” he admitted, “but it’s impossible to police.”
J.Crew’s subsequent expansion to more than 300 stores has been explosive. Among the core strategies propelling this success was the decision to make J.Crew a logoless label and the incorporation of classic American “cult brands,” in Drexler’s words, including … Russell Moccasins, Filson bags, Alden brogues, and even vintage Rolexes.
Alan is reluctant to discuss the overlap between the companies, but admits that “buying samples from other stores is standard operating behavior. You expect competitors to take details, but not to replicate a style in its entirety.” Muytjens acknowledges the existence of influential independent retailers in the men’s space but credits his design team with the identification of the particular brands his store distributes or collaborates with. “We are naturally attracted to brands with a heritage that tell a story,” he explains. “They are brands we grew up with. Our fathers and grandfathers wore them.”
Either way, tastemaking independent concerns such as Freemans and Steven Alan are caught in a quandary. Do the creative risks they take further their own brands or merely act as research and development for mass-market chains? Their predicament receives little sympathy from within the fashion world. “We don’t get challenged by knocking off anymore,” explains fashion brand analyst Tom Julian. “Ten years ago we would get offended, but now, when Missoni have a line at Target (TGT), blatant knockoffs are considered to be homages, or products that are ‘inspired by’ another designer.” ...
This is the weekly "Help Style Me!" post, where we can share items we are having trouble putting outfits together with. Elaine (in this post) says it best, "You know, that thing you bought because you love it and you keep pulling it out and then putting it away without wearing it?"
This is the weekly "Looking to LOVE with J.Crew" post, a place to share our favorite experiences with J.Crew.
Blythe ShirtdressThe wear-to-work statement of the season is definitely the shirtdress. Try it in supple silk with a breezy drape that adds a bit of romance to the buttoned-up classic. This style features a hidden button placket up the front, a sash at the waist and a delicately pleated skirt for swish and sway. Silk. Long sleeves. Button front. Chest pockets. A-line skirt. Partially lined. Falls above knee. Import. Dry clean.
I saw both the Navy and Poppy shades in my store— the colors are amazing. However I just couldn't pull off the Poppy. (It was too bright for my skin tone.) The Navy is a classic color (and their stock photo accurately represents the hue.)
I am also a pear shape (size 6 in bottoms). Some dresses, with an A-line skirt, do not work well for my figure. Thankfully, this wasn't the case with this dress. I found the size 0 dress fit me very nicely in the hips. (To clarify, this skirt is not full, but it is not a straight a-line shape either.)
"Thanks!" to many of you, who shared the following news from J.Crew this morning: J.Crew Factory (click here to shop online) is open for the week! Not just the weekend. *Free shipping applies to J.Crew Factory items in online orders only. Offer does not apply to previous purchases. Free shipping offer is valid for a limited time on J.Crew Factory Internet orders only, shipped via regular shipping (3 to 6 business days). Free ground shipping on J.Crew Factory items is applied automatically at checkout.As JCAs know... if you live near a Factory Store, check them out first. The B&M Factory Stores tend to have better promotions and sale prices.
**No exchanges, no returns on items marked as final sale. Offer valid at jcrew.com and J.Crew retail stores only. Offer is not valid at J.Crew Factory stores. Offer does not apply to previous purchases or the purchase of gift cards. Additional 30% off discount applies to J.Crew sale and Factory online sale items only. Offer valid through Thursday, October 27, 2011, 11:59pm ET. Savings are applied at checkout with code OURTREAT. Offer not valid on phone orders. Limit one promotional code per order. Details of offer are subject to change.
***J.Crew Factory items purchased through jcrew.com can only be returned through the mail and at J.Crew Factory stores.
"Thanks!" to many of you, including Silver Lining (in this post), who shared the following Madewell promotion with us.*Offer valid at madewell.com only. Offer not valid in Madewell stores. Offer does not apply to previous purchases, alterations or the purchase of gift cards. 25% discount applies to online orders of $150 or more before shipping, handling and taxes are added. Free shipping offer is valid on Internet orders shipped via regular shipping (3 to 6 business days) only. Offer valid through Thursday, October 27, 2011, 11:59pm ET. Savings and free shipping are applied at checkout with code YESPLEASE. Offer not valid on phone orders. Cannot be combined with any other promotion or redeemed for cash. Limit one promotional code per order. Details of offer are subject to change.It is a pretty good promotion considering the discount includes both regular and sale priced merchandise.
"Ironic is bad movies and malt liquor, not J.Crew at the Grove and Lipitor." —Reagan (Christina Applegate), to Chris (Will Arnett), on NBC's Up All Night
This is the weekly "Looking to VENT with J.Crew" post, a place to share our not-so-stellar experiences with J.Crew.
This is the weekly "Other JCrew-like Retailers" post (similar to the "Off On A Tangent" posts), where we can share our finds from other retailers that have offerings similar to J.Crew (like LE Canvas, Gap, BR, Talbots, Ann Taylor, and the like.)
A big "thanks!" to Helena who shared the following news & upcoming events:
The first event will run from Saturday, October 29th (9AM - 8PM) through Sunday, October 30th (10AM - 4PM).
Encore trenchThe sartorial love child of an undercover agent and a prima ballerina, this classic trench transforms in an instant, thanks to a dramatic tulle crinoline that attaches to the inside waist of the jacket (so brilliant). Cotton. Notch collar. Long sleeves. Self belt. Welt pockets. Button-tabs at cuffs. Back vent with button-tab. Fully lined. Hits at knee. Part of J.Crew Collection. Import. Dry clean. Available in select stores.Most of us gasped when we first saw glimpses of this coat in the Fall sneak preview from awhile back. Pairing the classic styling of a trench coat with the girly flair of the full skirt... LOVES IT!
Now with J.Crew's crazy sizing... I am usually a size 2 in outerwear with J.Crew. Although the past two seasons, I could go down to size 0. For this coat, I decided to stick with the same size I have for the Icon Trench (Item 11210, $298.00, now $199.99). I went with a size 2. I am glad I did, as the fit is perfect. (For reference, I'm 34B.)
The interesting thing about this coat is that there are two belt loops in the back only. It could use another two towards the front of the jacket.
The full skirt of the coat is really quite stunning. It definitely dresses up any outfit in an instant. Because it is so full, I think it works best with skinny pants. (Although, I haven't tried the coat on with a trouser leg yet.)... I think the consensus is you can either stick with your normal size or go one size up.What are your thoughts on the Encore Trench? Have you tried on this coat? If so, please share your review with us too! :)
I went one size up, the same size I have in the icon trench. But I am kinda busty, and will want to wear layers underneath, and just found the one size up much more comfortable. If this helps, I have a 6 in the wool cashmere plaza coat, the stadium cloth boulevard trench, and a small in my long puffer, but I have an 8 in my lady day coat, icon trench, and encore trench. But I know of another JCA who got her normal size, and lives in a warm climate. I hope that's helpful!
