J. Crew’s Beloved Print Catalog Makes a Comeback

With its downtown-cool Maryam Nassir Zadeh collaboration, J.Crew cashed in on brat summer. Now, by reviving its print catalog—and with a splashy dinner timed to, but not officially part of New York Fashion Week—the brand is positioning itself as a leader of the mall brand renaissance with a rebooted catalog. Unlike the mail-order nostalgia artifact that sold preppiness to the masses in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the new version takes notes from another kind of artifact: fashion magazines. Demi Moore is its cover star and sat for a four-spread interview. To package it, they tapped Atelier Franck Durand, the Parisian design agency behind Inez & Vinoodh’s Balmain and Saint Laurent campaigns.

This season, J. Crew joined a growing list of renegades like Proenza Schouler and Alaïa who are seizing the buzz and energy around fashion week without sweating being on the official calendar of events. The brand fêted its glossy print tome last week with what it positioned as a New York Fashion Week kick-off dinner, even though it’s not a participant in the CFDA’s official schedule. Still, industry figures are taking note: Danielle Goldberg, one of the most in-demand celebrity stylists working today, was in attendance, along with Riley Keough, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Bowen Yang.

“The goal isn’t that it’ll read, ‘new arrivals, buy these five sweaters,’ but it’ll be a story to tell,” women’s and kid’s creative director Olympia Gayot told WSJ of the slant the new catalog takes. So far, the brand is positioned to take storytelling all the way to the bank—and to new heights: this year alone the company has reported that it is approaching a record $3 billion in sales.