J.Crew’s New Cropped Sweater Upset Loyal Fans. Early Sales Still Beat Expectations
The brand’s collaboration with Emma Chamberlain has the internet divided.
J.Crew just launched a new collection of cropped sweaters in collaboration with content creator and entrepreneur Emma Chamberlain. It appeared to strike a nerve with some of the retailer’s customers.
The campaign is centered around J.Crew’s rollneck sweater, which the brand calls one of its “most enduring and recognizable icons” in a press release. Aiming to refresh the familiar staple—and, likely, attract Gen Z buyers—J.Crew introduced a new version with a fitted and cropped silhouette called the “Tiny Rollneck.” It comes in eight colorways and is priced from $98 to $118.
“The rollneck is a perfect example of how we think about heritage at J.Crew. It gives us something incredibly recognizable to build from, but it doesn’t mean we have to treat it preciously,” Julia Collier, the brand’s chief marketing officer, said in a press statement. The cropped version, she continued, is “a new way into an icon people already know.”
Chamberlain, 25, has more than 26.5 million followers
Chamberlain, 25, has more than 26.5 million followers across social media platforms and serves as the founder and co-CEO of beverage brand Chamberlain Coffee. J.Crew decided to partner with her to introduce its Tiny Rollneck collection due to her unique style and status as “a defining voice of her generation,” per the press release.
The daily digest for entrepreneurs and business leaders
An Inc.com Featured Presentation
Critics of the campaign took issue with J.Crew’s decision to shrink the sweater in order to appeal to younger consumers. Several asked the brand to “stop the crop” in the comment sections of its recent Instagram posts. However, Chamberlain’s own post about the campaign was largely met with positive reactions.
“The reason [you’re] becoming popular again after near bankruptcy is that the people that loved you [in] the ‘90s returned,” one person wrote on Instagram. “We are old, we are perimenopausal, we do not want cropped. The subset of youth that can actually afford your clothes may want cropped but, do they have the income levels to be purchasing a lot like the Gen X and Millennials do?”
Writer Emily Sundberg even stated, “I don’t like J.Crew’s new campaign” in the most recent edition of her popular business and culture newsletter Feed Me. She expanded on the topic in a LinkedIn post, writing that she sees the campaign as “a stark departure” from the retailer’s successful strategy of leaning into nostalgia. “Just last week, J.Crew launched a store with vintage pieces and it sold out immediately,” she added.
Source: www.inc.com
