dressed for the test

August 2011 catalog cover

featuring the No. 2 pencil skirt

Bring a healthy snack, a calculator, and the (in)famous No. 2 pencil.  Get plenty of sleep, and don’t forget to dress for success.  At one point or another, everyone has heard the spiel about how to prepare for the dreaded standardized test.  Unfortunately, J. Crew can’t help you with getting sleep or good test scores, but they can help you dress for the test.

Introducing the No. 2 pencil skirt from this fall’s new lineup.  It comes in a wide variety of great fall colors including my favorite . . . yellow.  Pair it with a crisp button-up or slouchy sweater (or both!), and you’ll look as sharp as a pencil on your fabulously-dressed way to success.

when in russia

It was an average day.  I came home from school, dropped my bag on the floor, and saw the stack of mail on the counter.  I spotted the corner of the J. Crew catalog lying at the bottom of the stack and pulled it out.  I gasped.  The cover was stunning and unlike anything they had ever done before!

The cover shows ballerinas, dressed in typical ballerina attire plus an Italian cashmere sweater, posing underneath a portrait of Leonid Yakobson (1904-1975), Soviet dancer, choreographer, and ballet master at the Mariinsky Theatre.  Along with Mr. Yakobson, the company has produced other big names such as Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Baryshnikov and has traveled around the world including a recent appearance at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC.  The Mariinsky Theatre was established in 1860 by Catherine the Great and has seen some of the greatest Russian ballet performances, including the world premier of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker.

The September 2011 catalog was photographed at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.  Ballerinas from the Mariinsky ballet school posed alongside the usual models, showing off their elegance and newfound love for J. Crew cashmere.  Each photograph beautifully captures the ballerinas’ simple grace and exact precision, along with the grace and precision of J. Crew’s sweaters, a must-have for this fall.  Plus, it reignited my childhood desire to become a ballerina.

steals and deals: a crime of fashion

It’s summertime.  It’s hot, like really hot.  You have the day off and you’re debating what to do.  You don’t want to stay home, but the pool will be too crowded and you’ve already seen all of the good summer movies.  Shopping sounds fun, but you don’t want to break the bank.  Thankfully, I have the perfect solution.  A solution that my mom, sister, and I accidentally stumbled across when we were in Indianapolis buying a car.  But don’t worry.  It has nothing to do with cars.

Lacoste Beam Metallic Flats

Carmel Consignment.  It is a fabulous little shop filled with high-quality brands and amazing deals.  We spotted the store when we stopped for lunch just outside of Indianapolis and decided to poke our heads in just to kill some time.  Instead we ended up spending hours browsing their endless racks of great clothing and walked away with bags of deals.  They had everything for both men and women from tops and bottoms to bags, jewelry, and shoes.

Pastel Petal Perfect Shirt

Two of my favorite pieces were the adorable Fiji Floral sweater from J. Crew, which retailed at $88, and the Pastel Petal Perfect Shirt from J. Crew, which retailed at $80.  Both were in good as new condition, and I bought both for under $10.  But my find of the day was a pair of Lacoste Beam Metallic flats.  I had just finished stating that I never bought used shoes unless they were really awesome when I turned around and spotted them.  Their retail price was around $50, and I purchased them for $10.

Fiji Floral Sweater

So if you’re in or around Indianapolis, make sure to stop in and take a look around.  It will be well worth your time and money.  If you’re not from around here, take the time to discover a consignment shop near you.  Finding that cute new piece for your wardrobe is always fun, but finding it for five dollars . . . well you almost feel like it’s a crime.

first name basis

This blog started as a project for one of my journalism classes.  While doing research for that project, I came across a Charlie Rose interview with J. Crew’s CEO, Millard “Mickey” Drexler.  In that interview Mr. Drexler talked about his conviction that even the CEO of a company should be accessible.  If a customer had an issue with a product, he should be able to talk to someone who actually had the ability to deal with the situation.

Of course, I have never been one to take people for their word.  So I sent an email to “Contact Us” at J. Crew to put Mr. Drexler’s promise to the test and to see if I could ask him some questions for my project.  I explained who I was, the project, and asked him some questions for the blog.  Four days later, when I received an email in response, I was ecstatic.

“Hi Summer – received your email from Contact Us – thanks much for your interest – appreciate you being a “J.Crew fanatic and dedicated customer” – would love to help out – please give me a number where I or my partner Tracy Crane can give you a call to find out a little bit more about the project –

Best,

Mickey”

The J. Crew Men's Shop

To make a long story short, we exchanged a few more emails, and he set me up with a phone interview with Tracy Crane, who oversees Marketing Communications and Customer Experience at J. Crew.  I had a blast talking to her.  We discussed the making of the catalog, our favorite J. Crew pieces, and how she landed the job at J. Crew.  But it was everyone’s personable attitudes and genuine desire to help that really made an impact on me.

Employee at a J. Crew store

There are many things that make a company great, leadership, focus, and money, to name a few.  But leadership, focus, and money will only get you so far if you fail at connecting with your customers and making them feel like one of a kind.  All of the people I have dealt with at J. Crew (through this experience and others) have always been extremely friendly and have focused on my specific needs.  Even though I’ve never met them, we’re always on a first name basis.

get your chambray on

There are some things in life that are just heavenly.  Manna, angels, stars, and, of course, chambray, to name a few.  Perhaps you scoff at that statement, but I believe that we will be wearing white chambray robes when we get to heaven.  I finally became the proud owner of a chambray shirt from J. Crew after my sister gave me one for my birthday, and it is the most incredible shirt I have ever owned.  I wore it four days in a row.  I have good reasons for doing so.

First, I wore it four days in a row because it is incredibly versatile.  It has a very classy yet comfortably relaxed look, so it is easy to dress up or dress down.  You can wear one tucked into a high-waisted skirt or with some shorts and cute sandals.  Plus, chambray is used in everything from skirts and pants to ties and shoes.

Second, I wear my chambray shirt all the time, because it is comfortable.  Some people are willing to sacrifice a bit of comfort for style.  But if you want to make a statement without suffering the whole day, chambray is the way to go.

Chambray is made by tightly weaving together white yarn vertically and oftentimes blue yarn horizontally.  This method gives it the soft sheen and slightly worn appearance.  It was first developed in Cambrai, France in 1595 and has been used in clothing for centuries.  It was the fabric of choice for the US Navy uniforms from 1901 through WWII, and the nautical influences in fashion are making it the fabric of choice today.

J. Crew is having a lot of fun with the popularity of chambray.  Shirts, shorts, dresses, skirts, ties, shoes, and hats: they offer it all in chambray.  They have the “I heart chambray” shirt and the stylish Tretorn sneakers in chambray.  Their chambray dress is adorable.  And you can’t forget my favorite piece from J. Crew’s sister store, Madewell, the chambray trousers in pink oyster.

Like I said.  Chambray robes in heaven.  Can’t get much better than that.

1+1=crew

Over the past month, we have learned a lot about J. Crew.  But each article was about a completely different facet of J. Crew, and they cannot define J. Crew by themselves.  In order to see and understand the public image of J. Crew that is portrayed, we must look at each of these areas together, as a whole.

J. Crew started out as a small mom-and-pop store.  They came to your home to sell clothes, and they did a very good job.  However, the company changed hands a few times and eventually ended up under the direction of a man who had been in the frozen food business.

Enter Mickey Drexler, J. Crew’s passionate CEO who transformed J. Crew from the small struggling clothing shop to the widespread popular retailer that we know today.  His eye for fashion and skill for turning companies around combined with President and Executive Creative Director Jenna Lyons’s bold moves and creative style have helped develop J. Crew’s style into what it is today.

J. Crew has always had a relaxed and preppy style, but Drexler and Lyons have encouraged the growth and evolution of J. Crew.  While maintaining the original vision that Mitchell Cinader had for the company, they have incorporated a bit of their own flair.  With the introduction of Madewell, J. Crew’s sister store targeted at younger women, and J. Crew COLLECTION, a collection of limited-edition pieces that are essential to every chic closet, Drexler and Lyons have left their own mark on the company.

Each month, J. Crew pulls everything together in their catalog.  With a little bit of hard work and a lot of teamwork, the J. Crew team puts together a catalog that displays the current season’s pieces, beloved classics, and their creativity.  Fun combinations and interesting ideas jump off the page, inspiring customers everywhere.

Through all of this, J. Crew maintains a strict sourcing policy to ensure the safety and fair treatment of their employees and suppliers around the globe.  This is no easy task, since J. Crew uses the finest materials and textiles from 20 different companies. 

Through combining all of these efforts, J. Crew produces quality clothing with a fun sense of style.  Kudos to J. Crew. 

What are your favorite clothing stores?  Anything similar to J. Crew?

picture perfect

Of course, how can we talk about J. Crew without mentioning the catalog?  I wait patiently every month to see what new and inspiring pieces J. Crew has dropped in my mailbox.  After speaking with Tracy Crane, who is in Marketing at J. Crew, I was given some firsthand insight into how the catalog is created.  J. Crew’s catalog is essential to their company.  It tells customers every month who J. Crew is and where they are going.  It keeps customers updated on the latest trends and styles.  And most importantly it inspires people to get up, get dressed and have fun.

In an interview for the Wall Street Journal, Jenna Lyons said, “One of the things that I think is unique about what we do is the way that we present the clothes. Sometimes it's a little kooky—sometimes it's too kooky—but it's this idea that you can make it your own . . . We're not saying you have to walk down the street like that, but what we are saying is you can have fun with it.”  The catalog is a great way to convey these ideas, and it often includes new, exciting pieces that can add a bit of pop to your wardrobe and classic pieces that have been remixed and rematched to inspire you with new ideas.

Something so vital to a company does not come together over night.  Months of preparation and work are put into every issue.  The photo shoot often occurs three to four months in advance, depending on the theme and location of the shoot.  When discussing the work environment at J. Crew, Crane said, “Something that differentiates us and makes us a great organization is the open nature of the environment.  People are encouraged to share ideas and new methods, and as a result there are always evolving ideas and designs.”  The catalog is no exception.

The design and production of the catalog is definitely a team effort.  Both Mickey Drexler and Lyons are very involved in the process down to the most minuscule detail.  They both help make layout design decisions and choose what language to use.  While there are a variety of people who specialize in different areas, no one person can claim the final product as theirs.  A core team of seven calls the shots and makes essential decisions, but at the end of the day, the catalog is the product of about 20 different people and their hard work.

The best part about the catalog?  It’s free!  Request a catalog here!  Or view the latest catalog here!

What do you think?  Is it something worth getting excited about?