I love the tiny shout-out to the JCA Blog at the very end. {yey!} I also really enjoyed the article! It had a great take on J.Crew's most recent transformation. I thought the following lines said it all: "This summer, then, what is the new J.Crew ideal? Not the East Hampton WASP, not anymore. Rather, it’s the sultry au pair watching the children. In sequins." So true! {tear} So true!!! ;)J.Crew Helps Preppy Go Euro
By Virginia Heffernan
July 5, 2010
J.Crew published its first catalog in 1983, three years after Lisa Birnbach’s “Official Preppy Handbook” codified a peculiar style of comportment and dress associated with rich enclaves on the East Coast. By the time J. Crew showed up — a full-fledged lifestyle manual that seemed to put on sale the whole preppy modus vivendi — Birnbach’s book was enshrined as both satire and tip sheet. J.Crew came to function the same way: with its anodyne clubby name and clothes that ripped off L.L. Bean, Brooks Brothers and J. Press, J.Crew seemed to spoof the preppy style while making it available.
Or maybe it spoofed the preppy style by making it available. For the set that embraced the Boston mentality — “We don’t buy our hats; we have our hats” — the idea of having to shop for what should be entitlements initially seemed embarrassing.
But now that people who look down on shopping are as rare as people who inherit pearls and cable-knit cashmere, nearly everyone has embraced J.Crew. The company, which went public three years ago, now boasts the endorsement of Michelle Obama; more than 300 bricks-and-mortar stores, including some that sell limited-edition items in places like Aspen and Malibu; and a thriving e-tailer and online entertainment business at jcrew.com.
Ever a zeitgeist company, J.Crew does the bulk of its dream-weaving — refining and disseminating the house aesthetic — at jcrew.com, which is lush with images, videos and distinctive “J.Crew haikus,” as staff members once dubbed the brand’s copywriting style. (“A ruched strapless bodice with metallic float threads woven into gauzy silk are attached to a bias-cut slight A-line skirt that hugs the body in all the right places,” read a recent online description.)
The re-emergence in pop fashion of the blue-and-white-striped sailor shirt has been a blessing to J.Crew’s Web site this summer. The shirt is sporty and thus not un-American, while also signifying “Paris,” a new concept jcrew.com has been audaciously colonizing. The site twinkles with references to France and haute couture, and recently it has positioned dissipated and mysterious Euro-type models in the slots that used to be reserved for “J.Crew models” — fresh-faced, wholesome strawberry blondes.
Not long ago, a bed-headed brunette appeared wearing nothing but a sailor shirt in a silent and almost-still video on the J.Crew homepage. She was fiddling with her hair, bored, as if waiting for her video to start. It was an inspired art-tech joke: the short stretch of video served as a double for a still image, disarming users who might have balked had the video, which came up unbidden, been more kinetic. Pressing “play” on this video of the girl — who, half dressed and waiting, was clearly looking for adventure — was the only gallant thing to do.
Sexualizing a model’s image by inviting the viewer to animate her, and thus implicating the viewer in the lady’s pleasure, is an extremely sophisticated use of online video for e-commerce. Once the user has got the half-naked girl to move, why not go ahead and buy her clothes?
The song that plays during the video says something in French about love and freedom. I first took it for a Carla Bruni song, in the spirit of “Le Plus Beau du Quartier,” which played in H&M’s bellwether online video, starring Emmanuelle Béart, in 2006. A J.Crew fanblog revealed, however, that the song was a company original. (The song, “To Be Free,” is sung by Guylaine Vivarat.) A commenter pointed out that it seemed like “a knockoff of Carla Bruni’s ‘L’Amour,’ ” and that seemed right.
Voilà — an e-tailer finds itself in the content-production business. Happens all the time. Because of customer requests, the company said that it would make the catchy chanson available — free — from J. Crew’s Facebook page. It seems absolutely integral to the new and improved J.Crew lifestyle, which recently featured a specific kind of heroine who, though eminently visible now in American cities, is underrepresented in our literature and film: a European in the United States.
The stateside European, in J.Crew’s imagining, wears all our usual American stuff — shorts, T-shirts, cargo pants, polo shirts — but has no use whatsoever for the simplicity and androgyny that used to be hallmarks of preppy. Under the inventive vision of Jenna Lyons, J.Crew’s revered executive creative director, as well as Mickey Drexler, the C.E.O., the clothes and the Web site have become ruffly, silky, beaded and sequined. Every outfit seems slightly hacked — cut up and embellished by a home tailor. You don’t envision someone in J.Crew playing lacrosse anymore; they seem more likely to be philosophizing and seducing. “I have a hard time with the word ‘preppy,’ ” Lyons told Style.com not long ago. “It’s very coastal, and it leaves out a lot of Americans who aren’t yachting or going to the beach club.”
This summer, then, what is the new J.Crew ideal? Not the East Hampton WASP, not anymore. Rather, it’s the sultry au pair watching the children. In sequins.
Points of Entry: This Week's Recommendations
SECONDARY EDUCATION
A sequel to “The Official Preppy Handbook”! If you didn’t get the memo the first time — or if you’re shaky on the role of rehab and texting in la vie preppy— hold your polo ponies:“True Prep,” by Lisa Birnbach with Chip Kidd, is forthcoming from Knopf.
WHEN WASPS BLOG
Those days of preppy names in print only at birth, marriage and death are long over. Now they can’t stop . . .musing. For modest laughs: To the Manner Born, WASP 101, Tickled Pink and Green, Muffy Martini, Pink Washingtoniette, 2PreppyGirls and Summer Is a Verb.
THE CREW
For deals, reviews, insights and general adoration of a clothing company, J. Crew Aficionada is a site to behold: jcrewaficionada.blogspot.com.
What are your thoughts on the article? Did you agree or disagree with any of the points made?
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