I have had the same experience with J Crew as a customer this year. They are definitely selling the ‘dream’ ; the styling and campaign imagery is fantastic but now they need to do the hard work to develop, test and perfect the product and execute the retail merchandising to reflect the new direction. The sizing and fit is all over the place and I have sadly had to return over half of what I bought due to inconsistent sizing. Having said all of that, I am happy it’s ‘back’ and they have nailed the nostalgic feeling of j crew in its heyday.
Have you gone to the store in Columbus circle on the second floor? It’s mostly men’s which also doesn’t make sense there given the tourist spot… also the at Rockefeller center has a terrible layout. Tbh the quality feels about the same as their outlet line! As someone who went to prep school in the 2000s… I have a lot of feelings about j crew the brand vs j crew the in store experience and hard product
I used to follow Textbook on tumblr, and it makes me so happy to read your writing again. I also recently went to a J.Crew store (although, in a suburban mall), for the first time in years and had similar feelings. What I see and feel while scrolling their feed and emails, wasn’t reciprocated in the store setting at all. It kind of served as a reminder that they’re still a mall brand at the end of the day with button downs and barn jackets to sell. It’ll be interesting to see what the numbers show!
thank you so much. i always wonder if i should try and do textbook posts on here, maybe i will! either way, thank you for reading here! and that was my exact feeling...i couldn't marry the aesthetic to the actual store and found it hard to fork over the money! we'll see!
I used to read the JCrew catalog before bed in 9th grade and dream about a roll neck sweater with a long button-front dark olive corduroy skirt. I looked like Laura Ingalls but I had Bridget Fonda aspirations. I learned a lot here, thank you!
I have had the same experience with J Crew as a customer this year. They are definitely selling the ‘dream’ ; the styling and campaign imagery is fantastic but now they need to do the hard work to develop, test and perfect the product and execute the retail merchandising to reflect the new direction. The sizing and fit is all over the place and I have sadly had to return over half of what I bought due to inconsistent sizing. Having said all of that, I am happy it’s ‘back’ and they have nailed the nostalgic feeling of j crew in its heyday.
Have you gone to the store in Columbus circle on the second floor? It’s mostly men’s which also doesn’t make sense there given the tourist spot… also the at Rockefeller center has a terrible layout. Tbh the quality feels about the same as their outlet line! As someone who went to prep school in the 2000s… I have a lot of feelings about j crew the brand vs j crew the in store experience and hard product
I used to follow Textbook on tumblr, and it makes me so happy to read your writing again. I also recently went to a J.Crew store (although, in a suburban mall), for the first time in years and had similar feelings. What I see and feel while scrolling their feed and emails, wasn’t reciprocated in the store setting at all. It kind of served as a reminder that they’re still a mall brand at the end of the day with button downs and barn jackets to sell. It’ll be interesting to see what the numbers show!
thank you so much. i always wonder if i should try and do textbook posts on here, maybe i will! either way, thank you for reading here! and that was my exact feeling...i couldn't marry the aesthetic to the actual store and found it hard to fork over the money! we'll see!
Casey Lewis pointed out that some of the styling looked like it could be from Express circa 2010 and I can't unsee that. https://open.substack.com/pub/afterschool/p/dopamine-menus-and-bloomer-femininomenons?
she had me at "why a great campaign isn't enough"!!!
Would love your thoughts on Gap under Zac Posen!
I used to read the JCrew catalog before bed in 9th grade and dream about a roll neck sweater with a long button-front dark olive corduroy skirt. I looked like Laura Ingalls but I had Bridget Fonda aspirations. I learned a lot here, thank you!