Launched in 2006, crewcuts—J.Crew’s children’s line—started out with just a couple of freelance designers and Jenny Cooper, now the head of design for crewcuts. In the past decade, the crewcuts team has grown to 15 designers and the line has become a runaway success. Cooper, a mom-of-two herself, wanted to make clothes that kids can grow up with, clothes that both the parents and the kids like.
“When I have my first son, my choices were so limited,” says Cooper, mother of two boys, Walker, 13, and Miller, 10. “There was nothing out there I could find that I either wanted or that he thought was okay to wear, because he would put on a pair of pants that I had brought him and they would be stiff and scratchy, and he would start crying!”
Since the line was launched, Cooper gets very positive reactions from the parents. Parents have thanked her for making the store a safe place to take their child where they know they will walk out with something that both of parents and the kid like.
“It’s always so much fun to have a connection to what you are designing, and to have feedback and a personal connection to it,” Cooper says. Besides being a mom herself, Cooper would also have conversations about kids, about what they need, or what they will be wanting, with the other parents in the office.
The crewcuts line started off with girls’ clothing, as the team has a muse that they are designing for, whose name is Olive. Olive is a very interesting, fearless, intelligent young lady. She hangs out in New York City and travels to Paris. The crewcuts team began doing some graphic tees that are illustrations of Olive. Eventually, Olive needs friends and companions that the team has later created these creatures as an addition to the collection, such as the Yeti, or Max the Monster.
“We are doing a lot with stretch this year, and comfort,” Cooper explains. “I know, first hand, the reaction you will get if you give a child something itchy, or stiff, or scratchy or heavy to wear.” The team has engineered some extra comfort this year on its clothing, such as their new chino pants, which would provide enough stretch so that kids could still squat, bend down, and play or move around without being restricted by their clothing.
The crewcuts line gets to do a little more than the adult line, as it plays with more patterns and get to be little bit goofier and sillier. Just recently, crewcuts launched some cute sushi patterns, which are on their new sweater and also their new sushi glitter bag to “make dressing more fun.”
With the holiday season coming around the corner, Cooper recommends a lightweight hover jacket, the barn jacket or the field jacket to prepare for the cooler months. The line has also designed some festive clothing with different interpretation of tartan. As for some of the future plans for crewcuts, be expected to see more sparkles, sequins and glitters in their future collection!
To shop the crewcuts line, visit jcrew.com!
