New York Fashion Week walks off between brand nostalgia and brand amnesia
lions I danced with model Joan Smalls to the indie rock band The Strokes on the roof of Pier 17, Manhattan’s riverside venue. It offers great views of the Brooklyn Bridge. interacted with VIP guests such as Diane Keaton and her friends from her days in J.Crew. The day after the event, she posed on Instagram wearing a black pencil skirt and a sequin-laden crop top. posted a message “I’m rooting for you @jcrew” wished his former employer the best after their highly publicized breakup.
Three years ago, J.Crew went bankrupt as the pandemic accelerated the retail apocalypse. The brand of choice for affordable prep products is currently undergoing yet another shake-up, but its ethos is no rocket science. We want to blend the old with the new and please everyone.
J.Crew CEO Libby Waddle said as much in an emailed statement sent through a spokesperson. “Through our designs, stores and overall creative approach, we have made it a priority to capture the brand’s heritage in new ways, always through a firmly contemporary lens.”
J.Crew isn’t the only old-school brand trying to reboot itself. For suburban middle-class millennials of a certain age, 2018 has been defined by his five mall brands: J.Crew, Victoria’s Secret, Banana Republic, Abercrombie & Fitch, and The Gap, and his 10 It defined teenage and youth.–Smart but simple, sexy but safe adult style. A combination of economic and cultural circumstances has caused these brands to fall by the wayside, giving way to fast-fashion retailers and new brands with a wider range of sizes and a stronger point of view.
But these days, 30-somethings for whom lacy Victoria’s Secret bras and J.Crew No. 2 pencil skirts were rites of passage into adulthood, thanks to a wave of publicity about updates from the fashion industry. You may be rethinking your brand.Publications containing GQ and refinery 29. The passage of time also helped. Fashion is always cyclical, but from his late ’90s tapping into millennials and her Gen Z, she’s gone back to the early 2000s aesthetic. anemia.
Victoria’s Secret and J. Crew kicked off New York Fashion Week with a series of events celebrating their newfound identities. And they took two markedly different approaches to her. J. Crew has embraced its classic, preppy Americana roots to build on its reputation. In the name of preserving its signature “fantasy,” Victoria’s Secret is desperate to cover up its decades-long sins.
The question for both is whether they can pull it off.their affair provided a glimpse of their differences new direction.
This isn’t the first time these brands have bounced back from the brink of disaster.
J. Crew made a name for itself in the catalog business before branching out into brick-and-mortar stores. The company struggled financially in the 1990s, when The New York Times reported that “easy-going models in lemon-colored turtlenecks” in the company’s catalog were “faced by junk bonds and retailers.” “It’s a far cry from the messy world of leveraged acquisitions.” J.Crew was founded as a private investment company in 1997. 2010s Lions lends high fashion credibility to mainstream brands, Obama He wore that name both on “The Tonight Show” and on a trip to South Africa.
But after 2020, Poor sales Clothes that many people probably owned too dependent on trends In recent years, J. Crew filed for bankruptcy. J. Crew has since changed his strategy, appointing Brendon Babenzian (ex-Supreme) as head of menswear and Olympia Gayot as head of womenswear. Bavenzin is also the co-founder of his menswear label Noah, which puts a streetwear twist on classics. Then his hiring by his J. Crew gave him a preppy, old-school label license to play with preppy, old-school motifs. Gayot, on the other hand, has become an Instagram star known for his relaxed, elegant minimalist style that gives the brand his style, mixing oversized masculine silhouettes with classy feminine touches.
Part of J.Crew The reinvention was to look into the archives of classic, timeless items that were wardrobe staples in the catalog era.The approach was revealed on Tuesday Vintage catalog photos were prominently displayed in the party decorations.
J. Crew’s event seemed to ask, “Do you remember the good old days?” Do you remember the tanned colors, the comfortable sweaters, and the sturdy, rumpled khakis?
It was warm and humid. The guest’s fluffy dress stuck to her back. The ice beneath the clams and oysters was melting at an alarming rate. Channeling J.Crew’s preppy vibe, guests get robbed for Instagram A vintage white Land Rover surrounded by piles of hardcover books and a small wooden boat with a canoe paddle. Joshua Jackson, a J.Crew catalog model in 1998 and now a friend of the brand with a salt and pepper beard, posed there with his wife, Jodie Turner-Smith. . Other VIPs include actor Adam Scott, singer Leon Bridges, model Ella Emhoff (step-daughter of Vice President Harris), and J. Crew’s royalty Waddle, former CEO Mickey Drexler, They included Babenzin (in denim shorts and a tie) and Gayot (in a white shirt). suits and sequined bikini tops).
The only thing that got in the way of fervent nostalgia was the Strokes, who also appeared at J. Crew’s Fall Fashion Week. party last year.
“It was true. It was also a little fake,” he mused. Frontman Julian Casablancas from the stage towards the end of the set. After a moment he added: “I just kidding“
Maggie Bullock, author of The New History of J.Crew.”kingdom of preparation” and attended the party. She wondered, “What would an 8-year-old think if I told them the Strokes were going to be playing a J.Crew party around 2023?” She also wondered if the privately held company had regained enough customers to make a profit.
Bullock looks around the party, trying unsuccessfully to identify the “new J. Crew” look. “I’m sure they dressed a lot of the people that were there, but it was a little hard to tell,” Block said by phone afterward. That said, “What they’re leaning into now is basically a quietness of good taste and good tailoring. They’re riffing on their classics. These, by their very nature, appeal to the crowd. It’s not something that stands out.”
Emily Sandberg wrote about J. Crew in her business ‘Substack’ Please feed me. “I’m impressed with men’s items so far,” she said in a phone interview. It’s not entirely clear who the woman has in mind with her designs, but she thinks some of the suits are “beautiful.”
“Are you a Tribeca mom?” Sandberg asks. “Is it for the young, cool guy who hangs out downtown and understands style? Is it for the guy who’s about to go to work? Is it for the guy who stays at home?”
in Manhattan Center, Victoria’s Secret Wednesday Night It hinted, though not so subtly, that things had changed. The dimly lit event hall was decorated with a pair of wings, a Victoria’s Secret staple, but in more earthy tones rather than the iridescent or psychedelic vibe of yesteryear. A nearby screen shows vaguely feminist phrases like “protective armor” and “female form,” followed by images of indigenous people shucking oysters, folding clothes, and performing ritual dances. Cut to a black and white video clip.
Back in 1982, the New York Times said the Victoria’s Secret catalog featured models “photographed in feminine poses against elegant backdrops.” By 1991, James Morgan of the Washington Post said that Victoria’s Secret had “sophisticated the concept of lingerie as fashion more than anyone else.” That’s when the idea was revealed that what she wears underneath her clothes should be just as colorful, intricate, and trendy. “
Like J. Crew, Victoria’s Secret is also under new leadership. She divorced her parent company, L Brands, in the wake of a controversy that virtually killed off the Victoria’s Secret fashion show. In 2019, Victoria’s Secret lost relevance to other companies that advocated being more feminist, diverse, and unpretentious brands, former L Brands executive Ed Razek told Vogue. , Victoria’s Secret said it doesn’t intend to fundamentally change its approach to underwear like the rest of the industry. It has been reformed to be more inclusive of different sizes and identities. There was a backlash (to say the least) and the annual television show was canceled.
Additionally, Victoria’s Secret has found it difficult to cleanse itself of the brand’s association with Jeffrey Epstein, which was the subject of a recent documentary series, “Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons.” mid-1990s, Epstein is said to have been a friend and adviser to Leslie Wexner, who was CEO of the brand at the time. introduced himself as a model recruiter About Victoria’s Secret assaulting a woman. Wexner resigned in 2020. Victoria’s Secret declined to comment for this article.
At a party on Wednesday, the lingerie brand announced What do you think would be an alternative to Fashion Show: Four short four-segment video presentations debuted on IMAX-sized screens. Collections by designers based in Tokyo, London, Bogota, and Lagos, Nigeria. It is run with the help of popular models of the past (Naomi Campbell, Gigi Hadid, Candice Swanepoel) as well as up-and-coming models whose looks and physiques are clearly outside Victoria’s narrow historical framework. taste. Among them is freckled model Adwoa Aboah. Sora Choi has large tattoos all over her torso and lower back. Transgender model Valentina Sampaio. and plus-size models Devin Garcia and Paloma Elsesser.
Victoria’s Secret touted the film, entitled “The Tour,” as “a reimagining of an iconic fashion show.” Remarkably, none of the collections achieved the traditional bra and pant combo that made the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show such a huge event. Models wore pants, coats, leggings, gowns, and crop tops.
Colombian designer Melissa Valdes Duque dresses her Victoria’s Secret models in see-through dresses woven in random, chaotic patterns reminiscent of scars on human skin. A homage to the stories scars tell about our lives. And Japan’s Jenny Fax has perhaps the most effective reform. She covers some models in lacy bras and panties and layers of “xoxo” tape, while others wear bubble dresses made of semi-rigid material that give them soft tummies. . I love the handles and the small, modest chest.
It is the model’s body that conveys a clear statement of reinvention. Whether Victoria’s Secret likes it or not, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show will always be remembered for the winks, blowing kisses, and pageant-queen-like hair that flew out. Victoria’s Secret finally acknowledged her real skin, with its bumps, lumps, and folds, in the movie “Tour.” Bodies of various ages during pregnancy, postpartum, and over several decades. The hair is in various stages of air drying rather than miles of shiny hot roller curls.
Not everyone is happy of course. A Victoria’s Secret fan on Instagram If you look at the feedback on his account, you’ll see comments like “This is not sexy” and “I want the Victoria’s Secret of 2000 back.” Some people just want the past.
Victoria’s Secret, on the other hand, is trying to adapt to the present and future that seems to belong in shapewear. “Because they know the Skims are going to win the game if they don’t,” Sandberg said.“
Mr. Judkiss reported from Washington.