Whence JCrew?

A strange thing happened recently. I no longer crave anything at J Crew. Not a single thing. Yes, this might not be as much of a mystery as the disappearance of the Malaysian flight (and no, I’m not making light of a catastrophe), but it is odd. Odd, since for a stretch of about 6 years in the 2000s there was always, with every seasonal change and every new catalog, something I felt I could not live without – a striped sweater jacket (that I still troll after on Ebay); the chicest cardigan; a perfect denim shirt; a ballet flat with a hint of wedge… the list, a sad testament to my shopping greed, goes on.  But last week, as I stood in a store wishing not for a single item, and not for the first time, it dawned on me: J Crew is no longer lust worthy.

Given that this meteoric rise and subsequent decline and fall is a phenomenon worth pondering – Gibbon has nothing on me! – I considered the issue at hand at some length. I went to the JCrew website to continue my research – everything that the brand is known for was in place, Jenna Lyons’ creative hand was visible in the careful mix of high and low as the obviously fake jewelry was juxtaposed with obvious luxury. All was as it should be – but maybe that is just the problem? In the most academic of manners I propose to you the following hypothesis: has the JCrew style become a stale style staple?

We all know what to expect from Lyons and, by extension, JCrew. We love it, sure, but we also have grown accustomed to it, and so have other retailers. Jealous of the brand’s successful overhaul of its image and incredible reach other mass market retailers have encroached on the semaphores of the JCrew styling – which, after all is what the brand did best – copying them. Walk into the Gap these days and you will see a strikingly similar retail landscape at a slightly lower price point.

Oh well, sic transit gloria commerciana (all translations into Latin are mine, and hence wonky).

So whence to, you might ask? Not sure yet. And who knows, Lyons and Mickey Drexler might be able to change things up, updating their brand without erasing its distinguishing attributes. Or maybe it is time for a new creative vision. Either way, when I walk into JCrew these days I see what I saw once at Gap – a mass retail store that no longer has the sparkle to lure me in for anything other than the basics (and only on sale).