Prep on Pause: J. Crew Gets Back to Its Roots
By Alina Clough
Nostalgia is always at risk of cliche. The crunch of fall leaves, the warm smell of coffee and bacon in your childhood home, and crisp autumn air all exhaust the pages of bad poetry and worse romance novels. We dislike cliche for a reason: it’s insulting to lazily manipulate art. Cliche is stolen valor, painting over the past with too broad a brush.
True nostalgia, in contrast, is in the details. It’s the sentimental tastes and backroads you’d forgotten about long ago, finding you again. True nostalgia is gently tugging at a single thread and granting a new perspective on the grand woven quilt that is your life. More than material, it’s texture, drape, and heft. More than soundbite, it’s narrative.
This is what J. Crew has successfully captured in this year’s fall collection, marking the highly anticipated relaunch of its catalog after a long creative sabbatical. Emphasizing classic cuts, the pieces still carry quintessential American sophistication. Crucially, though, this collection is more than timeless. Rather than hide its age and maturity, the company with this reintroduction wears it proudly.
The polished ease typical to the brand is still wrapped in a confidence that comes from decades of history and success. This season, however, marks an intentional step towards slowing down, both for the brand and its title as the patriarch of prep. Although the “old money” aesthetic is undeniably having a moment, classic cuts are at best appreciated for their utility in “capsule wardrobes” and at worst as cost-effective symbols of wealth. “Old money,” the modern descendant of prep, has been forced to sprint along on the fast fashion TikTok treadmill. J.Crew’s collection is a welcome change of pace, perhaps forcing frantic trends to stop and catch their breath.
The collection was shot entirely on film, featuring the photography of Laura Jane Coulson, Balarama Heller, and Theo Wenner. It included casually coastal vignettes evoking family vacations on the cape, deliciously romantic New York moments, and the kind of warm familial relaxation that only happens on holiday PTO. The warm salt air and smell of bronzed wood settle into the tweeds and wools of the pieces, nestled in relaxed fit and soft lines.
The materials, too, force one to stop and appreciate the details. The Barn Jacket nods to Grandpa with its corduroy collar and a sleek waxed cotton finish, with broken-in Oxford shirt and alpaca cardigans that look like they were stolen off of a sibling while home on Thanksgiving break. Other pieces, like the classic-fit denim, field boots, and leather loafers, seem to be asking to record memories of their own with worn-in cracks and creaks that can only improve their character.
Finally, the throwback episode features a throwback star of its own, Demi Moore, off hiatus to serve as one of the catalog’s cover models. Her collaboration is both a reminder of the brand’s 90s-era distinction and its not just survival but thriving into the turn of the century.
J. Crew’s enduring blend of American charm and classic renown is born anew in the latest catalog, reminding fans old and young of prep’s origins. From the hearth to the dorm halls, prep has come home for fall.
Alina Clough lives in Washington, D.C. and is a writer at Evie Magazine. She can be found on Instagram @alinatotheleft and on X @Cluffalo.
