We Love… Old School J.Crew

We’ve decided to start a new category on the blog that we hope will help our readers and clients get to know us better. An ongoing “About Us” section if you will. We’ll be writing about thing that we love, things that inspire us, things that excite us and things that make us giddy.

So to start- I’m here to tell you about one of my inspirations.

I was 13 years old, in the 8th grade and obsessed with those printed polyester shirts from Delia*s. The 70′s look was in and I was all over it. One day, I received a J.Crew catalog in the mail and I was completely taken aback. This was not the trendy polyester shirts being modeled by metal-mouthed tweens that I was used to. This was grown up and sophisticated and preppy and there was just something about those catalogs that I couldn’t put my finger on- but I wanted in.

I poured through those catalogs for about a year, while I unsuccessfully pleaded with my mom to order some of the clothes. I never threw any of them away. I began tearing out sheets that I found particularly pleasing, but I wasn’t sure what it was about them or why I felt the need to rip them out of the catalog.

When I turned 14, the J.Crew store opened here in Charlotte. I went opening weekend and bought my first piece of clothing. A navy blue reversible wrap skirt- plaid on one side, solid on the other. I know, I know..just too cool for school I was, in my knee length plaid skirt…

Anyway, throughout high school, my fascination carried on. I continued to hoard catalogs and continued to rip out pages. And here is my freaky OCD confession. Please don’t judge me. It’s pretty bad.

I still have all the catalogs from about Fall ’96 to about Spring ’02, in chronological order in my closet in my old room at my parents house. There we go, it feels good to get that out there! That’s a little tidbit I don’t go around telling just anyone.

But I said all that to get this: Unbeknownst to even me, J.Crew catalogs inspired my artistic eye and sense of style probably more than anything or anyone else. I just remember being so blown away by some of the photos. I wanted to crawl onto the pages and live in their little world.

There was a man rowing a Christmas tree in a boat across the lake in one holiday issue (see below :). There was a family on a sailing excursion one summer. A New York City couple, wrapped in Christmas lights and dressed in their PJ’s while decorating their brownstone for the holidays. These pictures are so vivid in my mind- tattooed on my brain in fact. They are part of what makes my artistic mind think the way that it does, and I hope I never ever forget them. But, at least I have an organized closet full of catalogs just in case :)

One of my favorite photographs of all time.

So random and quirky and completely unrealistic. I love it!

I’ve always loved that they use older people. I hope I look like that lady when I’m her age.

Always a fan of nautical anything.

I think J.Crew is partially to blame for my burning desire to live in New York when I was 19.

I love it when they construct an adorable little J.Crew family that’s coordinated to perfection.

When I thought it couldn’t get any better, Crew Cuts came along and swept me off me feet. I just love the fun little kid worlds that they create!