what's new, J.Crew?

A midtown appointment finished up early, and having misspent some of my youth in a town whose name in the local variety of the Algonquian language has been variously translated as "place where the mall rats gather" or "place where the stores look like  the other stores," I instinctively and craftily slithered across the street, eluding colleagues, and took a look at what might be new in the Rock Center J. Crew.

This is a store that is surrounded by enormous office buildings, in which thousands of women come to work, at all professional, administrative and clerical levels, all day, all year. There was not one thing I would wear to work at any job I've ever had, except maybe camp counselor. Are they missing a marketing opportunity or trying to distract us from dreary days? and if things look dreary at your job, shouldn't you be encouraged to take small or large steps to improve that situation?

Well, here are some pix and comments. You come in the front door and are greeted by a long table of short shorts and tees. The tees are tees. Some of the shorts are cute. Red and cream-colored shorts had little fish critters. The fish were sparkly.

 These shorts are not so tiny, and in real life are light pink with yellow embroidery. Sorry about the lighting.


 There seems to be a lot of embroidery around. The pencil skirt to the right was cute; a spaghetti-strap dress in the same fabric had a short puffy skirt and didn't appeal.

The black-and-white theme seemed prevalent, as well. Oops, the mannequin on the left is wearing a romper!

Close-up of romper:

This looked like a cute jacket, cotton, or cotton/linen blend, but I couldn't get the hook-and-eye closures to close or to remain closed. So although in theory I'd like it with black skirt or slacks for work, or for work & after, the falling-open bit would make me crazy. Not recommended.

Cute dress, flimsy material, short, low-cut, keeping the wrapped bit wrapped seems problematical. You either need a lot more chest or a lot less chest than I have. Oh, and definitely a lot less thigh.