🔥FIRE SALE🔥 No. 6

July 25th, 2022. A date that will live in infamy. The day everyone asked, “is J. Crew back?!?!?””

When I started working at the J.Crew Men’s shop, it felt like my entire life had been leading up to that moment. I was a typical private school kid whose mom had always kept me strapped in J.Crew from head to toe. Easter Mass. J.Crew! Country Club swim team banquet. J.Crew! Internship interview. J.Crew! The brand was omnipresent in my life.

While working at J. Crew, I helped countless mothers dress their ambivalent sons for the first few years of manhood. I saw myself in their disdain for the dressing room. They had no particular style preferences, but they had Bar Mitzvahs, 8th-grade graduations, and dinners at nice Cape Cod eateries to be bored stiff at. 

As we tirelessly tried on different ensembles, you could see the gears turning in their heads. They preferred plaid to stripes. Green and faded chinos to navy blue pairs. Secret wash shirts to flannel. These young boys on the precipice of manhood were starting to think about what they actually liked and how they wanted to look. 

I worked at J. Crew during the interwar period – after Brendon Babenzien’s appointment as creative director and before his collection debuted. During that time, we started slowly rolling out small batches of relaxed button-ups and oversized pleated chinos with baggier silhouettes that Babenzien had his hands in.

The grown-men-version of these sartorially confused boys were regulars and came in to stock up on casual Friday looks or new threads for a Hamptons weekend getaway. They were squeamish about Babenzien’s new fit. I hoped they would have the same subtle eureka moment as the young boys, and their taste would move ever so slightly in J. Crew’s new direction. I weirdly cared a lot about the success of a brand that had been teetering back and forth between bankruptcy for years because it was one of the first stores to make me consider my own sense of style, and I hoped it was still that place for others.  

So last week, when J.Crew released Babenzien’s first proper collection and digital rebrand to go along with it – wiping the entire J.Crew Men’s Instagram page of any remnants of slim-fit chinos and gingham shirts, GQ, and plenty of folks in the online menswear community asked the simple question, “Can Brendon Babenzien Make J. Crew Cool Again?” 

Image from InsideHook

~Cool~ with all its vaguery and imprecision, has become the de facto battleground of the J. Crew discourse but is ~cool~ the right measure of success? 

In Sam Schube’s piece for GQ, he described Babenzien’s first collection as “thick with straightforward, well-constructed menswear classics, pushed perhaps five degrees off-center and styled in an unfussy, personal sort of way.” Those five small degrees are significant to the J.Crew customer who doesn’t yet know it but is subtly reexamining their style. It stops them from fully mutating into a slim-fit gingham goblin and gives them the tools to become a more fully realized version of themselves. The real measure of success for J. Crew is not if they can “come back” or be “cool again” – whatever that means. It’s whether they can create a store that offers ordinary people, who may be interested in rethinking the way they look, something out of their comfort zone while remaining safely on the rails.    

The Fall 2022 lookbook, which has been the focus of the discourse, is by no means outside of the box for J.Crew but is a subtle refresh. You’ll see all the monikers of modern menswear. There are camp collar shirts and trousers galore, but also pieces that differ from the last decade of J. Crew looks. The cornerstone of J. Crew’s business is the chino pant. They are the most reliably consistent piece, but they have also been reliably slim. The garment most emblematic of J. Crew’s willingness to experiment is a repudiation of their extra slim style – the Giant-Fit Chino. In certain angles, the pants are almost laughably zoot-suit enormous, but when styled correctly are a fresh and unexpected piece from a brand that has had a reputation as a place you shop if you want to play it safe.    

The Giant-Fit Chino in action (left)

The new J. Crew may seem remedial for those four layers deep on the menswear iceberg, but it introduces their consumer to new, more fashion-forward silhouettes and styles. The if-you-know-you-know crowd of today may repost @lostjcrew, the incredible Instagram account that posts images from the brand's 90s laidback and casual catalogs and praise the 1998 Dawson’s Creek catalog. They might admire J.Crew’s DNA but clown the new direction. 

This segment of the menswear community seems to have a misplaced sense of history. J. Crew has always been a store that offered a more affordable alternative to Ralph Lauren with some slight yet interesting design distinctions. What made J. Crew exceptional was not that it was cool – it was that it was an accessible gateway to a more intentional and individual style. Of course, the more sophisticated consumers who are the vocal leaders of menswear online have moved beyond J. Crew, but there are so many consumers who are stuck in the Zara, H&M, and Shein multiverse of markdown madness who could benefit from going to a store that excels at elevated American classics and offers a dash of idiosyncrasy.     

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The influences of the new look J.Crew are fairly obvious. We’re talking Maine, vintage Ralph, and sweaters that you keep exclusively in a cupboard at the lake. A simple search on eBay or Depop will yield similar styles for a meager price.  

Vintage Neiman Marcus Rugby (left), Vintage Ralph Lauren Polo Rugby (center), and Vintage Vertical Stripe Polo Rugby (right).

Rugby shirts are a staple for Babenzein’s new look for J. Crew. Ralph, Tommy Hilfiger, and J. Crew made hundreds of styles of rugby shirts for decades. I especially like the red and black striped rugby pictured above. The denim collar is a nice touch that adds an unexpected element of texture and color. 

Land’s End Heavyweight Cotton Cable Knit Roll Neck Sweater (left) and L.L. Bean Floral Barn Jacket (right)

I was happy to see J. Crew reintroduce staples of their 90s catalogs – the roll neck sweater and the barn coat. This cable knit rollneck from Land’s End is in pristine condition and hits the waist perfectly. The barn coat is a L.L. Bean classic, and you can find hundreds online in a variety of colors. Every once in a while, you will find a limited run with incredible embroidery. I love this piece that says spring more than fall but is beautiful nonetheless.

Vintage 80’s Green L.L. Bean Harrington Jacket (left), Vintage 60s Harrington Blanket Lined Jacket (center), and Vintage 90s Baldanza Sportivo Silk Orange Lined Harrington Jacket (right)

J. Crew has also introduced a corduroy Harrington jacket into their catalog at $248 and a twill Harrington jacket at $158, which is a sizable difference from the standard Baracuta jacket. These pieces will save you even more. This 60s-era white blanket-lined Harrington jacket is a steal at $62. Channel the inner 60s sex icon of your choice – James Dean, Paul Newman, or Steve McQueen are all up for grabs. 

To get you into the J.Crew spirit even more, here is a complete compilation of every season of the iconic intro to Dawson’s Creek featuring certified slapper “I Don’t Want to Wait” by Paula Cole.