Wednesday, April 18, 2012

J.Crew Designer Collaboration with Altuzarra

"Thanks!" to so many of you, including Bindi (in this post), Ludo & Elaine (in this post), as well as Jackie & Donna, who shared with us the following news: there are some sneak peeks at the J.Crew + CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund honorees Altuzarra, Pamela Love and Creatures of the Wind collaborations.

The following is from the Daily Mail (click here to read in its entirety):
Sneak peek at J Crew's ultimate designer collaboration with Altuzarra - on sale THIS Thursday
April 18, 2012

J Crew has teamed up with this year's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund honorees Altuzarra, Pamela Love and Creatures of the Wind.

The three high-low collaborations are fashion's most highly anticipated, with the Altuzarra's design's dropping first on April 23.

In a sneak peek at what to expect from the collections, Vogue got three of their own employees to style and model the collaboration pieces with other designer items.

Leslie Kirchhoff, a Vogue.com Contributing Photographer wears the Pamela Love-designed denim on the far left.
In the middle, Giovanna Campagna, Vogue‘s Special Events Assistant wears Altuzarra’s striped sweater and pink pants.

On the right, Fashion Associate Cynthia Smith wears a cardigan and sweater designed by Creatures of the Wind’s Shane Gabier and Chris Peters (which she teams with a Carven skirt).

Giving an small insight into the direction each collaboration will take, Altuzarra's collaboration will feature Parisian-inspired marinière sweaters, pencil skirts, and 'vertiginous' espadrilles.

Jewellery designer Pamela Love makes her first foray into apparel with boyfriend jeans and shrunken jackets in her J Crew line, available on May 14.

Then Creatures of the Wind will feature 'eye-popping' twinsets, floral summer dresses and patchwork oxfords in their collection, out June 11.

This is the second time the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund has partnered with J Crew. Last year saw Billy Reid, Prabal Gurung, and Eddie Borgo’s pieces quickly fly off the shelves.

There has been no mention of retail price-points yet, but last year's collections ranged between $200-$450 - which may be pricey for J Crew, but much more attainable compared to the usual prices attached to the featured designers.
There is a great article over at Fashionista (click here for article) that shows all the pieces in the Altuzarra collection. Click here to check out the slideshow.

What are your thoughts on the upcoming collections? Are you interested in any of the pieces. Do you think these partnerships help build J.Crew's image?

24 comments:

  1. What's with that sweater with all the holes??!!Okay, so it's supposed to look moth-eaten and therefore it's "fashion forward" but this is getting a little ridiculous. I'll stick to my Petit Bateau mariniere (with no holes), thank you very much.

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  2. Louise @ cosmetic bee: LOL! I saw that sweater too (the first in the slideshow) and thought J.Crew will probably charge over $100+ for a sweater I think is damaged and unsellable! ;)

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  3. Holey sweater aside, I think I'm in love with the Creature in the Wind's twin set.

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  4. Louise - I did a double take at the ripped sweater. At first glace the stripped dress is my favorite. Looking forward to the web site update.

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  5. Totally disappointing, he can do much better and what's the point of having a collaboration if it's to replicate stuff that they have already done in the regular collection (like the two denim skirts). Maybe I am wrong and the hole-y sweater is going to be sold-out in two milliseconds, but the only thing that it's going to sell is the BB dress IMO.

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  6. Absolutely right, Ema, such as the striped shirt (see item 74219), the (store-only) cashmere colorblock dress which looked very like that twinset, and oh, boy, a jean jacket! Looks like an excuse to charge more for same-old, same-old.

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  7. I read somewhere that the holes in the sweater were meant to evoke WASPy moth-eaten wonderfulness.

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    1. Hah, that's funny! I think that most actual WASPs would sniff and say "If you have to buy holes, UR DOING IT RONG."

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    2. Since when is moth-eaten clothing wonderful?

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  8. JC has to collaborate to come up with holey merchandise? I thought they were doing a fine job of that on their own!

    (Seriously, they should do a JC/JCA collab where we send them all of our holey knit tees and they resell them at a markup.)

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    1. I seriously laughed out loud at your comment. My co-workers probably think I'm crazy now.

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  9. Just wanted to mention that my rant wasn't just for the sake of ranting. I LOVE Altuzarra, I still remember the first time that I saw a pair of A. shoes in the Sunday Styles section of the NYT and I was transfixed (I think I still have the cutout somewhere). He is completely out of my reach so this collaboration could have been the occasion to own a piece by a favorite designer. But holey sweaters? Gingham shirts (like we hadn't enough gingham in the past two seasons)? No thanks! I will rather save my money for the promising pencil skirt or the strapless dress that ajc has posted today blog.

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  10. Hiya - Can anyone post the text of this NY Times article about breaking up with brands? I'm over my free 10 articles per month and I caught a glimpse of J Crew mentioned here. thanks.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/fashion/breaking-up-with-a-clothing-brand.html?ref=fashion&gwh=D187ECA714287103CDCEFF71AF7A3F50

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    1. Did you try just posting the link in a computer that's not your own? I just copied and pasted the link in my browser and got the full article. It's a great read by the way. Thanks. I did break up with Forever 21 in my early 20's. We only hook up once in a while now.

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    2. if you're over your free 10 articles on NYT, just delete the gibberish after "gwh" in the url!

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  11. love the leopard heels the girl on the right is wearing, wish those were a part of the collection!

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    1. That was the only thing that caught my eye in the photograph.

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    2. Is that like an 8" heel, though? I almost broke my ankle looking at the photo;)

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  12. That style of having holes on, ie; T's or Sweaters has been done already, by Balmain, 2 years ago. Of course Balmain's style was very edgy and rock n' roll. It's hard to pull it off, especially if you are pairing it with something that doesn't match. We shall see tomorrow how its styled in the catalog.

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  13. Here is an article that NYTimes ran today. Interview with Altuzarra and his collaboration with J.Crew.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/fashion/joseph-altuzarras-collection-for-j-crew.html

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  14. I had no idea my moth-eaten sweaters would become fashion forward at some point ...

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  15. Sweater with holes? I thought the grunge look was out.

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  16. This collection and New Arrivals are up on the website now.

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  17. All I see are stripes, stripes, stripes. YAWN.

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