The J. Crew Catalog is Back
Will Embracing 'Catalog-Core' Keep the Brand's Momentum Going?
In Today’s Newsletter
J. Crew Brings Back Its Iconic Catalogue
I-D Magazine Returns. Does anyone care?
Why Allbirds Failed & Other Lessons for DTC Brands
Ghia Launches a New Non-Alcoholic Fizzy Bev
The J. Crew Catalog is Back
Today, J. Crew announced they are bringing back their iconic catalog.
Discontinued in 2017, the catalog’s archives have become pique moodboard content, showcasing preppy classics of a bygone era.
But now, as part of a larger strategy to reset its image amongst younger consumers, they’re bringing back the catalog from the archives to show off their Fall mens/womens looks.
J. Crew’s CEO, Libby Wadle, told the Wall Street Journal,
We’re finally back in the driver’s seat… We were seeing many generations come back into the brand, or join the brand for the first time.
Under her tenure, the brand has completely reshuffled its creative direction, bringing on Brendon Babenzien, formerly creative director at Supreme and founder of Noah for their men’s collections.
The new catalog features several covers, including Demi Moore, and an expansive array of photoshoots. It will arrive in mail boxes this month.
While it will feature QR codes so readers can easily purchase clothes, it will read more like an editorial magazine.
Nostalgia for the 80s/90s catalogs has hit an all-time high as preppy staples are in vogue. Catalog-core is so in this Fall.
Erika Veurink wrote an incredible article a few months back on ‘How to Dress like a 1992 Catalogue Model’
In her newsletter, she broke down all the essential items you need to recreate timeless catalog looks
Striped Oxford
White canvas sneakers
Rugby polos
Roll neck sweaters
I think refreshing the catalog for 2024 is smart. Photos from past versions have wound up on so many moodboards and have inspired countless modern brands.
Nostalgia for this era is peaking and many of the looks from classic catalogs have aged to perfection.
Wadle reported the brand has made $3B in sales thus far, as mall brands like Abrerombie & Fitch have had a sort of nostalgia fueled renaissance.
I’ll be on the lookout for the catalog, and will follow up with my thoughts after reviewing more photos.
i-D Magazine is Back from Hiatus
The iconic fashion and culture magazine is returning from a nearly year long hiatus. Their new website launched this morning.
After being acquired by Karlie Kloss’ media company, Bedford Media, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Alastair McKimm, was initially supposed to expand his role, but departed just a few months in.
The publication then announced it was pausing operations to undergo a strategic shift.
While i-D has had its fair share of iconic covers…
It begs the question: when is it time to put a media company in the dustbin for good?
Iconic intellectual property is appealing to investors as it already has name recognition, and archives they can use for nostalgia-bait content.
That’s why Hollywood keeps making the same movies over and over again.
But with i-D, and other legacy media properties, we will quickly see if young readers actually care, or if these brands should just go away for good.
What’s replaced them? Literally just Instagram and X accounts.
A single PopCrave tweet gets more engagement than most legacy media stories.
Why Did Allbirds Tank?
Remember Allbirds? The ugly cheap, knit wool trainers. They aren’t doing very well. Why?
Well first of all because they’re some the ugliest shoes ever created.
Despite that, the stock has tanked— trading below $1/share and now having less than $100M market cap.
Just a few short years ago, the company was literally worth $1B. ONE BILLION DOLLARS.
They IPO’d in ‘21 and initially had a pretty good stock performance.
But like many direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses that ruled the mid to late 2010s (Warby Parker, Dollar Shave Club, Casper, etc) their business fundamentals quickly began to show cracks.
Drew Fallon, CEO of Iris, broke down the financial factors that led to their demise in a well-researched thread.
The TLDR is that their gross margin fell, 20% by the Q2 ‘22, and sales did not keep up as expected.
They slashed marketing expenses, which fueled the sales, leading to discounting, inventory mismanagement, and a slew of other problems that has destroyed Allbird’s shareholder value.
Drew put the final nail in the coffin and offered advice to other DTC founders—
… And unfortunately there is no clear path for Allbirds to recover as a public equity. The point I want to leave you with is this- there is good growth, and there is bad growth. If top line is growing, it can do so on top of a house of cards Know your unit economics.
Ghia Launches Le Fizz
Snaxshot reported that Ghia is launching a new ‘ready-to-share’ fizzy, non-alcoholic drink.
Its launching in a Strawberry & Orange Blossom flavor.
Founded by Melanie Masarin in 2020, Ghia quickly found product market fit.
Between their classic apertifs and the smaller cans you can find at most wine bars, they have been incredibly successful at dominating the aesthetic, NA market.
The packaging on this is gorgeous and I’m excited to try. I have two full apertifs in the fridge rn so I’ll be watching the sunset on the roof w those later on.
Did anyone see this meme floating around?
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Jake Bell is a content marketing, creative strategist, designer, and writer based in NYC. He specializes in brand building, content strategy, creative direction, business development, and making things cool.
Want to chat? Email me: jake@jb.studio
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Not saying it was manifested but
Is J.Crew doing a sponsorship campaign with a variety of Substack authors? I saw a lot of these posts in my feed today.