How I feel about the death of J. Crew

For those of us who grew up in the early-to-late aughts, the death of J. Crew is keenly felt.

The announcement of J. Crew Group’s bankruptcy filing this week appeared to be a long time coming to anyone who glanced even once at their website.

On any given day of the week, banner ads boasting crazy sales—60% off all dresses, skirts, pants, jeans, tops was a common one—ran across the website. You had to wonder how they were breaking even with sales like that.

For today’s tweens and teenagers, I suspect J. Crew has always seemed just a little bit out of style, just a bit too preppy and put-together for their taste. But for those who grew up or became young adults in the early-to-late aughts, the death of J. Crew feels a little bit different. It feels like the end of a fashion era.

J. Crew first came along my horizon as fashion was just beginning to burgeon into one of my true loves. At that time, we lived in McLean, Virginia, a D.C. suburb also known for its sprawling mall, Tysons Corner. (The area has since become its own entity and a corporate mecca.) Tysons Corner had a whopping two malls: Tysons I, where most of the normal department stores were located, and Tysons II (or Galleria), an up-scale, tony version that at one point boasted an FAO Schwartz, numerous high-end designers and was directly connected via walkway to the area’s Ritz Carlton. You get the picture.

When J. Crew became a fixture in Tysons II, the aspirational suddenly became attainable. There was something almost revolutionary about the store. A place where you could buy affordable basics, work wear and even a wedding dress, all in one place? And with the veritable goddess Jenna Lyons (pictured below) at the helm, everything J. Crew touched seemed to turn to gold. Their catalogues offered pictures of beautiful women and men cavorting in plaid pajamas, loafers and button-downs. Which type of chino would you choose, they asked?

But by the time I got to the age where the chino-loafer vision was possible, J. Crew no longer held its mythical appeal. Their new denim outpost, Madewell, was starting to surpass J. Crew’s hype. I could see the writing on the wall. The last thing I bought in recent memory from a J. Crew was a pair of Birkenstocks Arizona EVA sandals that I scored for $15. They have become my go-to quarantine shoe, but I fear their low price has also become a symbol of just how far J. Crew has fallen.

Okay, but what about the clothes?

It feels sad to say support J. Crew while you can. The underlying truth of all this is that they have great sales right now: an extra 30% off all sale styles, as well as 40% off summer-ready styles and 60% off all swim and shorts. We stan a seasonally appropriate sale.

Here are my top picks.

A jacket that offers the cross between a sporty Patagonia and a fun fleece you can wear to the gym. These are the kinds of clothes I end up buying way too much of for someone who lives in Florida, and yet! I am attracted to every sherpa/fleece with a pocket that I see.

Price: $52 (off of an original $128)

These color-block sandals may be the coolest I’ve ever seen. They combine the trend of using sustainable materials that look straight out of a weekend hiking trip with the trend of insane colors. I love them.

Price: Not the best sale I have to bring to your attention today. $87 off of $98. But how cute!

My boyfriend’s take: These are astonishingly ugly. (That’s his idea of a good quote.) To each their own, I suppose.

If you waited too long, like me, to get in on the slide/bow sandal trend, these could be the shoes for you. Slides manage to make sandals look fancy, and the bows have an added touch. Plus, that blush pink color is perfect for summer!

Price: $28 final sale, off of $138. A steal if I ever saw one.

This fun, flirty polka dot top is perfect for work with black pants or drinks with tight jeans. I love the ruffles and the material. There’s also a red version. Plus, it’s a price you can’t beat.

Price: $23 off of original $118.

Before you go.

As I was writing this essay, my boyfriend pointed out that J. Crew’s bankruptcy filing doesn’t mean the end. And I know that.

A part of me wondered: Am I pre-writing the obituary before the store has even died? Am I forecasting a death that may never happen?

It is probably a question we’re all asking ourselves of industries that are suffering right now and that have been suffering for quite some time. (As a journalist, I think about this a lot.) Neiman Marcus is set to file for bankruptcy any minute now. J.C. Penney looks like it could be close behind.

Do you ever wonder whether the last time you walk out of a store will truly be your last? It sounds silly, because I don’t want to frame my whole life in capitalist terms: the stores I’ve bought clothes from. But these stores are more than that. They are the days spent with Santa at Macy’s, they are picking out furniture with your mother at Pottery Barn Teen, they are the seminal trip to Victoria’s Secret as a teenager for the first time with your friends and no parents. They are memories and moments and a signifier of coming-of-age.

I fear for the day when I turn to my child and tell them about J. Crew or Nordstrom and they think of them the way I might think of my grandmother telling me about her time working at Gimbels in New York City. She never lost the meticulous gift-wrapping skills she learned there. Stories like that take on a glossy hue because they feel so far in the past that they are almost not real.

I’m not ready for that to happen to the stores of my youth. So maybe this is not an obituary for J. Crew but for all the stores that are suffering slow deaths.

Can’t we have more time? I don’t want to say goodbye just yet.

—Elizabeth

For further reading and a counterpoint: “J. Crew Didn’t Need to Live Forever,” by The New York Times’ fashion critic, Vanessa Friedman. This article makes a lot of the same points I do but uses them to prove a different overall argument. It’s a great piece and should be read in tandem with this one! Unfortunately, I only read after I was finished drafting this essay, or else I would have addressed it more.