The Huffington Post did the dirty work and dug into the archives of iconic Americana prep purveyor J.Crew to show us that the brand's catalogs and product selection haven't really changed all that much in the brand's 27 years. They gathered a bunch of catalogs from the Spring 1987 catalog through the '90s and showed that everything more or less remained the same, even linking to the current J.Crew site to show that these age-old products are still available for purchase.
This isn't that surprising to be honest. It's pretty well known that brands like J.Crew stick to their staples that sell every season, throwing in some tweaks every so often to account for fit and fabric changes. That's just protocol for a lot of big retailers. The prevailing J.Crew look is a well-established WASPy, white-bred New England aesthetic and the brand knows this. But the thing I am most shocked about is mostly the styling and photography. You could seriously drop one of those photos of a men's button-up shirt from 1989 onto the current J.Crew website and it wouldn't look out of place. It's slightly rumpled and laid out to show that. The sleeves are folded over the body just so. It's signature J.Crew merchandising. It's a little weird that there hasn't been a change to those in roughly three decades. Even though Jenna Lyons is apparently fucking shit up for J.Crew on a larger basis, I guess they can always can her ass and the staples will continue to sell regardless.
