another rake's progress: from creative niche company to desperately seeking funds

In his series of eight paintings (later, engravings) A Rake's Progress, Hogarth depicts the fall of a promising and beloved young man from a happy life into depravity and lunacy through lust for short-term pleasures and bad choices.

I have just read the most astounding analysis  - including a mind-boggling chart - of  "the current state of preppy/trad clothing and accessory vendors as they evolve from young, innovative companies (on the left of the chart) to company shells/cautionary tales (on the right)." The author, Muffy Aldrich, proprietress of the really nice Daily Prep blog, has reduced the development vel non of apparel and gear purveyors to A Rake's Progress, and it only took her one etching to do it! The discussion that follows the post is also worth reading; there, as here, as at JCA and other places, opinions vary, mostly politely. So you may disagree with the placement of a company or two on the road to rag-trade perdition, but I think you will agree with the analysis of the stages. The broadest conclusion that can be drawn is that the apparel industry eats its young. Further head-scratching pays off, however: why are some companies not even mentioned on a list that includes everything from Brooks Brothers to J.Press to Eddie Bauer? Could it be that someone who takes prep/trad really, really seriously is unaware of J.Crew's very existence, when the trajectory describes J.Crew with such terrifying exactitude? Perhaps, but when you hear hoofbeats you shouldn't expect to see a rhinoceros, the simpler explanation is this: the author - does not consider J.Crew a preppy company. It has not even earned the right to appear the chart, or perhaps had it but lost it. 
I thank the amazing Ms. Aldrich for her spot-on analysis, and for those of you who are too shopped-out to click, I replicate her chart here.

The companies that are listed at the top, are listed at the points where they fall on the "life lines," that is the Quality Line, the Growth Line, and the PR Line. As we know, it is dangerous to believe one's own PR.
I think you'll need to click the link I provided above to get the full definitions of the stages listed along the bottom of the chart. It's worth doing.

Update: a lovely and gracious reader (see below) has directed my attention to an earlier post on the Daily Prep, which is seriously thought-provoking:  "Why J.Crew is not preppy."  This should be required reading by anyone who leaves the house with credit card in hand. Or for that matter, sits in front of a computer with credit card in hand...