Last evening, J. Crew presented their Fall '11 collections at the wonderfully chosen Industria Studios on Washington. The first time presenting both men's and women's together, it was yet another home run for the J Crew team. While I loved the women's looks(as usual, wonderfully put together), here, we'll have a good look at the men's side of the room.
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending J. Crew's SS'11 presentation staged at Milk Studios in Chelsea, NYC. Layered up in a shawl neck sweater, Barbour, Bean booted and umbrella in hand, rain coming down pretty good, Spring couldn't have been further from my mind, but the collection got me pining for warm April days and just right, cool evenings. Spring collections are tricky. They can verge on the minimal and underwhelming. Fall/Winter has all the fun, the simple fact being that there are more pieces to make, more to wear, heartier fabrics and textures to play with. Spring, it's just shorts and tees right? Not so in this case. J. Crew's Spring '11 collection is a playbook in new classics, old favorites, smart layering, crisp fabrics, textural and tonal mixing.
Following on the heels of the recently opened Men's Store on Madison Ave, Frank Muytjens, Head of men's design at J.Crew and good friend of Secret Forts, gives Sandra Ballentine of T Magazine(2010 Men's Fall Fashion Issue) a look at a few of the many layers of his own personal style, what inspires him and where he gets away from it all.
Details check in with Jenna Lyons, Frank Muytjens and Andy Spade on two words J.Crew knows well, American Classics. Click HERE for their short list for summer.
It couldn't have been any nicer of a day in the penthouse at Milk Studios where J. Crew presented their Men's and Women's Fall 10 collections. With the doors to the deck wide open, sun shining, the view clear west across the Hudson, Dark & Stormies being passed, it was quite a different setting from the previous presentation, elevating the whole event to great and dramatic effect. Only added to visually by the very Irving Penn-like(I don't mean the "corner"), simple and strong set...And once again, Frank Muytjens and his team show why he gained GQ's nomination this year. You just want to put the clothes on, and with this collection, go get lost in the woods like Nick Adams. As usual, great outerwear from the Expedition Down jacket(now on my list) to the Field Mechanics jacket. Footwear is heavy on Russell's and the excellent Alden Longwings and Chukkas. I was stoked to see a Kelty rucksack in the mix as well as the tone on tone patched chinos using faded vintage fabrics that give really subtle and slight variation to them. And the suiting continues to impress me, especially the beautiful marled gray wool up front(also now on my list). A really solid, well built, extremely well edited, wonderfully styled collection (J.Crew does not joke when they tell you "Jack knows best")and another home run for Frank and his crew.
With such a nice day, good people, an open deck and an open bar, I decided to stick around to see Women's. And I'm so glad I did. It is fire. Just beautifully put together. Jenna keeps pushing women's to really great heights and had to congratulate her on it.
So well done by all involved. CLICK BELOW for more photos of the event as well as some selected images from the lookbook.
When it was announced a while back, I was stoked to hear that Frank had been nominated as one of GQ's Best New Designers of 2010. Like most of the other nominees, Frank is anything but new to design. Having done his requisite time at RL, Frank took the helm of men's design at J. Crew a few years back and in the meantime has, with the help of his able design team, the pitch perfect Creative Direction of Jenna Lyons and the CEO-ness of Mickey Drexler, steered J.Crew into a whole new direction. There may be some debate, and when I say "may" I mean "is", as to whether what J.Crew is doing is anything other than co-opting what many feel is something that belongs to the initiated few and mass-retailing it across the country. I know this due to the amount of comments, left here and elsewhere, whenever a J.Crew post pops up. And I can't say that, at times, I don't see that side of the argument. The fact remains that J.Crew has surfaced on radars where, a few years prior, they hadn't even blipped. Knowing Frank and Jenna a bit, it's a very genuine excitement that gives genus to what they do over there. Frank has an earnest and totally legit love for the same things that we all do. He just happens to be the head of Men's design at J.Crew. We all have our opinions on the matter. Feel free to leave yours in the comments if you like. Congratulations to Frank for the nomination. Well deserved.
It couldn't have been any nicer of a day in the penthouse at Milk Studios where J. Crew presented their Men's and Women's Fall 10 collections. With the doors to the deck wide open, sun shining, the view clear west across the Hudson, Dark & Stormies being passed, it was quite a different setting from the previous presentation, elevating the whole event to great and dramatic effect. Only added to visually by the very Irving Penn-like(I don't mean the "corner"), simple and strong set...And once again, Frank Muytjens and his team show why he gained GQ's nomination this year. You just want to put the clothes on, and with this collection, go get lost in the woods like Nick Adams. As usual, great outerwear from the Expedition Down jacket(now on my list) to the Field Mechanics jacket. Footwear is heavy on Russell's and the excellent Alden Longwings and Chukkas. I was stoked to see a Kelty rucksack in the mix as well as the tone on tone patched chinos using faded vintage fabrics that give really subtle and slight variation to them. And the suiting continues to impress me, especially the beautiful marled gray wool up front(also now on my list). A really solid, well built, extremely well edited, wonderfully styled collection (J.Crew does not joke when they tell you "Jack knows best")and another home run for Frank and his crew. 
