“Cool party, guys,” cooed Julian Casablancas, frontman of the Strokes, as the band took the stage last night at J.Crew’s 40th anniversary party. And the event brought out quite a stylish crew, indeed, just in time for the start of New York Fashion Week. As cool kids made their way up to the rooftop at Pier 17, J.Crew iconography flashed above them in the form of vintage catalog covers featuring from Linda Evangelista to Katie Holmes and James Van der Beek circa Dawson’s Creek. Joshua Jackson (a.k.a. “Pacey”) was also there in the flesh, accompanied by his wife, Jodie Turner-Smith. Last season, decades years after appearing in the 1998 J.Crew catalog with his Creek castmates, Jackson and Turner-Smith starred in a special-edition J.Crew holiday fashion feature that recalled the brand’s heyday. Photos from the campaign now also appear in their very own Assouline tome.
Meanwhile, at the party, bartenders served up Seaport Spritzes and Martini 83s while clad in navy-and-white Breton-striped shirts. “They’re so comfortable,” one said as he poured this writer a cocktail before the Strokes came on. Ahead of serenading the crowd with hits like “Last Nite” and “Hawaii,” Casablancas took a moment to marvel at the New York City skyline behind the stage. Four floors down and 40 years ago, J.Crew opened its first store at the pier, introducing the brand’s classic Americana style to the masses. Many party-goers dressed the part in natty rugby shirts and penny loafers with socks—and even more could be seen moshing in them.
For her part, Olympia Gayot, J.Crew’s creative direcor and head of design, came dressed in a boxy white blazer, matching shorts that nodded to Carrie Bradshaw, and a polka-dot bikini top, which she had adorned with sequins especially for the occasion. “I was going for heritage, because that’s the theme of the 40th anniversary,” she said. “There’s so much about the spirit of and the essence of the brand—through the catalogs, through people’s personal stories. Everybody that I talk to has a tale about when they were in college, and they ordered this sweater from the catalog, and they’ve had for 20 years, or a mother passes something to a daughter.”
The pièce de résistance, though, was Gayot’s soon-to-be-released Olympia Le-Tan x J.Crew book clutch, embroidered with a cashmere sweater and (yes!) the same polka-dot swimwear-styled-as-outerwear Gayot had peeking from beneath her jacket. The limited-edition collaboration will feature one of five different iconic J.Crew covers from catalogs past. No doubt, the next generation of J.Crew cool kids will covet and collect those in droves, too.
