J.Crew | Blog

06/12

A Moment with…Ennis McIntosh

we dropped into the Lower East Side studio of friends, woodworking collaborators and all-around solid guys Sean Ennis and Angus McIntosh of the design firm Ennis McIntosh to, literally, talk shop. (their client list includes Soho’s Saturdays Surf and Montauk’s Moby Dick’s restaurant.)

So what were you guys like growing up?
Sean: I grew up in Connecticut. I was always skateboarding and drawing.
Angus: I grew up in Sydney, Australia, surfing. I spent a lot of time in the water.

Were carpentry and design always part of the plan?
Sean: I never planned on being a carpenter, but I did study illustration and design in school.
Angus: I’ve always worked with my hands. My grandfather was a carpenter, so it has always interested me.

How did you guys meet?
Sean: We met through mutual friends in New York. We used to pass off carpentry jobs to each other. We eventually realized we could capitalize if we worked together. We started Ennis McIntosh back in January 2012.

You have such a cool studio with great light here on the Lower East Side. How did you find it?
Angus: Sean lives around the corner from the studio, but our good friend Jason Woodside’s art studio is right next door. He clued us in to the space and we jumped on it. The light in here is almost too good. You see every detail, every imperfection. It can drive you crazy.

What’s the best part of doing what you guys do?
Sean: Being in an environment that’s constantly pushing boundaries of design and creativity makes us try that much harder. We’re constantly inspired by what’s around us.

Where does the wood you use in your projects come from?
Angus: We get our wood from all over, mostly upstate New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut. There’s a great yard out in Orefield, Pennsylvania, owned by this guy Kenny. He’s a legend.

How does your creative process start?
Sean: It starts with a mood board: We’ll begin drawing, put pencil to paper and start developing an idea. Our first conversations are always about the inspiration.

You’ve worked with clients like Converse®, Acne, Saturdays Surf. Is there anything you’ve done lately that you’re really proud of?
Sean: We made a table using the original wood floor from a building’s elevator that used to lift horses back in the 1800s. That really stands out in my mind.

Anyone you’d like to team up with?
Sean: It would be great to collaborate with one of the art museums here in NYC. Or maybe with an artist to create a large-scale installation for something like Burning Man or Art Basel in Miami.

Let’s talk personal style. You guys are on site a lot and always using your hands…
Sean: I usually wear the same thing if I’m working or not. I’m always in jeans and Vans®.

What are your plans this summer?
Angus: We currently are working on furnishings for the backyard of the Soho Grand Hotel. It’s a great outdoor space on West Broadway. Stop by for a beer and check out our work.

Photography by Justin Chung.

To shop our selection of Vetra™ items, including the #7 Worker jacket, click here.

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06/11

Studio Tour: Tabitha Simmons®

CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund runner-up Tabitha Simmons, the English-born shoe designer and stylist, invited us to her Chelsea studio to reveal an envy-inducing number of shoes and a little boy’s hat made of vintage Cracker Jack charms that was totally, well, charming.

Among shelves of coffee table books and an assortment of graciously pinned-up thank-you notes from designers like Jack and Lazaro of Proenza Schouler and Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour, it’s the sixteen or so racks holding 500 pairs of shoes that steal the show. “I think the DNA of my shoe is something that’s quite chic and whimsical. It always has that sort of slight British quip to it,” says Simmons.

The shoe manufacturing happens in Italy, but it’s here in Simmons’s office where the creative process of reviewing swatches and sketches begins. “I don’t really have a desk, I guess. I’m always sitting somewhere other than my desk or on the floor, cutting,” she says. “I’m never in one place.”

Most of Simmons’s office is a clean palette—big white sofas, freshly painted white walls, huge picture windows. Even the hundreds of shoes and clear bins stacked 20 high of styling accessories are concealed by a large curtain. Perhaps this is an effort to keep her working space somewhat neutral, since in addition to shoe design, Simmons is a stylist for Vogue and finds herself ping-ponging between Milan and Paris for shoots. “I try to keep styling and shoe design in two different heads,” she says. “I think the thing about having a background in design is that it just makes you very aware of the details and what’s around you. And from there you just get to work.”

Photography by Bryan Derballa.

Read more about the lead-up to the launch of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund collections here.

And to shop the exclusive Tabitha Simmons shoe collection and the rest of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund designs, click here.

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06/11

Our Men’s Hand-Painted Camo and Military Tent Tarp Shorts

meet sam and dan. together with our design team, they’ve put a lot of thought into (and logged some serious hours) creating the shorts you’ll be living in this summer. from the Stanton short in hand-painted DPM (the acronym for “disruptive pattern material,” a fancy British way of saying “camo”) to our military tent short, consider them your marching orders.

Into the Wild
First used on the Denison smock (named after its designer, Major Denison), which was issued by the British army in the 1940s, the original camo pattern was created using light green, dark green and brown brushstrokes made with a mop. A similar look was recreated by our own visual designer, Sam, with a long paintbrush. “We wanted the effect to feel more painterly than graphic,” says Sam, who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago before joining the J.Crew team four and a half years ago.

Bases Covered
Sam hand painted more than 200 yards of fabric (for our tried-and-tested Stanton short in a summerweight chino) over the course of a week. It took a bit of time to nail down the paint type and colors, but he eventually landed on a red ochre and a sap green. After the painting was completed and dried, we washed the fabric again to give it a worn-in feel.

Military Issue
Around the same time, our men’s designer, Dan, began working with vintage suppliers in Minnesota and California to source the material for our military tent short. (This is our third season carrying it, and this time we’ve made only 30 pairs—the most limited run of the style yet.) “We were looking for nuances,” says Dan of the tents he chose. “Stamps, repairs, stains, seams—signs they’d been worn in.”

Field Guide
The shelter-half tents went through two or three rounds of washes (since many of them dated back to the 1940s), then our team placed the patterns by hand to ensure we were maximizing the details—the signs of wear. The tents were then sent off to our factory to be assembled to our specifications.

The Real McCoy
The hand-painted camo shorts and military tent shorts arrived in our office within the same week. The team went to work numbering each pair by hand, and our graphic designer created paintbrush and tent motifs, which appear on the inside of each pair. Most important, no two are identical.

To shop the Stanton short in hand-painted DPM camo click here, and to shop our military tent short, click here.

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05/29

On Our Radar: Zipper Gear and Full Gear Collector’s Guides

our men’s design team is just as obsessed with this encyclopedic cult series of hard-to-find books (wholly dedicated to the history of American antique zippers and U.S. military flying clothing) as they are with the fanatical Japanese gentleman who self-published them, Aota Mituhiro. we talked shop with Mituhiro during a recent trip to the U.S….

Japanese collector and author Aota Mituhiro is passionate about denim. He’s also passionate about the history of zippers, U.S. military flying clothing and leather jackets. But really, it all started with denim. “Growing up, I was fascinated with second-hand American denim,” says Mituhiro, who explains that vintage denim was hard to come by in Tokyo, where he grew up and studied engineering.

Every few years, Mituhiro and his wife come to the U.S. for research trips. This one has brought them to New York to, among other things, visit the J.Crew offices. “I took every photo and wrote every sentence,” explains Mituhiro of the books, which are produced in very limited quantities. (Full Gear, published in 2005, took about five years to complete. Zipper Gear, the latest, took about eight years.) Roughly half of the pieces photographed are part of Mituhiro’s collection; the others belong to various collectors who allowed him to view and capture their pieces for his books. “Even though our men’s design team travels all over the world for inspiration, these books feature rare uniforms and collector’s pieces we’d otherwise miss out on,” says men’s designer Frank. “Anything you can imagine—from flying suits from 1918 to hunting jackets from the 1930s—are on these pages.”

These books are hard to track down stateside (and they’re priced at $214 each), but we’ve put aside a limited number of them for you at our J.Crew Men’s Shop at 1040 Madison Avenue in New York City.

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09/07

Fashion-Inspired Stationery

just in time for New York Fashion Week, a roundup of stationery
we’re loving that takes cues from the world of fashion

1. Clever hat cards from Rifle Paper Co.
2. Wide-stripe wedding save-the-date that’s reminiscent of a sailor tee, from Cheree Berry Paper
3. Madras personalized note card from the Stationery Studio
4. Argyle-inspired thank-you card from Hammerpress
5. Herringbone love-you card from Egg Press
6. Ikat thank-you card from Bella Figura

(post by Lauren Richel Kelly)

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06/30

Stylish Summer Reads

enjoy rereading a classic novel during the
dog days of summer with one of these cool
vintage book covers in hand

(post by Katie Boiano)

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06/20

Landscapes in Landscapes

Hot off the Monacelli Press and beautifully designed
by Irma Boom, Landscapes in Landscapes opens
the gate to 23 public and private gardens designed by
renowned landscape architect, Piet Oudolf

A leader of the New Perennial planting movement, Piet Oudolf is internationally acclaimed for his emphasis on plant structure and near-exclusive use of perennials, which produce a constantly changing environment throughout the year. New Yorkers have become familiar with his work by strolling along the High Line and wandering through Battery Park. The book Landscapes in Landscapes chronicles
the growth of his projects, beginning with a 350-square-meter private garden in The Netherlands and concluding with the 25,000-square-meter Nantucket Garden in Massachusetts. Overflowing with glorious photos of year-round gardens, hand-drawn plans, and color-coded plant proportions, Landscapes in Landscapes is an absolute feast for the eyes.

(post by Sam Parker, photo credit Piet Oudolf)

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05/24

As anyone who dreams of Elle Decor on an IKEA budget knows, filling a space with art isn’t exactly easy on the wallet. So when I saw how much of the decor at our new Fifth Avenue store was D.I.Y. (and good D.I.Y. at that), I harassed our store decorator Ruth for her tricks of the trade (then proceeded to spill her secrets on our blog…).

Ruth’s philosophy, it turns out, is more Marcel Duchamp than arts and crafts (sorry, put the pipe cleaners away)
—repurposing everyday objects as works of art. Here’s her process in a nutshell…

Step one: Scour flea markets, vintage stores, eBay, your parents’ attic, etc., for everyday objects that look like
they could moonlight as works of art.
How can you tell? Look for “pieces with sculptural silhouettes, eye-catching textures and/or colors with a story behind them,” says Ruth. Among her finds for Fifth Avenue were vintage chalkboards, jettisoned letterpress letters and industrial gears, an old-school glass beaker set and stray pieces of driftwood—even a stack of National Geographics from 1959 made the cut, thanks to those iconic yellow spines.

Step two: It’s all about presentation—if you treat it like art, it’ll look like art
(it’s The Secret meets Architectural Digest, if you will).
A good rule of thumb is that everything looks better in a frame—think old letters, your childhood stamp collection—or under a bell jar. Alternatively, try arranging found objects of different shapes and sizes into little still lifes, like Ruth did with an odd assortment of wooden finials (ornamental accents you might find at the top of a bedpost). And always go for the unexpected. Case in point: The Fifth Avenue store displays paintings facing the wall because Ruth fell in love with the color and patina of the backs of the frames. And we’ve already shown you her huge textural mural of vintage gloves.

Basically, it’s all about seeing things with a new eye. And if you’re like me and would like that eye to belong to Ruth, check out the
Fifth Avenue store for some more inspiration.

(post by Alexandra Andrews)

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05/17

Receiving almost as much attention as the clothes, the art at the gallery-esque Fifth Avenue store has a presence that’s undeniable. Ruth, our prop and window dresser extraordinaire, reveals the artists and just how many gloves there are. “The wall of art…is a mix of vintage and new, known artists from galleries and unknown artists unearthed in antique stores and flea markets.”

Women’s Cashwrap (clockwise from left)
- “This painting was bought in an antique store [artist unknown]. I’m crazy about this piece. It reminds me of an architectural floor plan.”
- Photograph by Patricia McDonough.
- Abstract painting on paper by Deborah Dancy. “We love this artist so much, we bought about a dozen pieces of her work.”
- Photograph of girl in car by Cig Harvey.
“This is my favorite piece in the whole store. It grabs your attention—it’s mysterious and arresting.”
- Red drawing of nude by Jean Negulesco.
- Vintage 1950s fashion photograph (artist unknown).
- Paper collage by Duncan Hannah. We almost bought out the entire collection of these collages from the ’70s and ’80s.
- Masking tape piece by Jon Ros.
- Black charcoal drawing (artist unknown, bought at a flea market).
- Art poster. “I love the graphics and color combination.”

Men’s floor stairway (clockwise from left)
- Vintage art poster from the Leo Castelli gallery.
“This is from a great collection of exhibition posters we found that date from the ’70s and ’80s.”
- Collage by Cecil Touchon.
- Photograph by Marc Yankus.
- Vintage Le Corbusier poster, sourced at an antiques show.
- Vintage film poster of “Blow Up,” from the personal collection of Frank Muytjens.
- Black and white pen and ink drawing. “Glenn and I were at the Brimfield Flea Market and he found this incredible collection of sketchbooks from one artist. This is one of them and so is the pen and ink portrait on the left wall.”
- Richard Serra poster from the Leo Castelli gallery.
- Abstract painting (artist unknown).
- Uncut dust jacket covers with drawing of Leo Castelli by Andy Warhol.
- Collage by Duncan Hannah.
- Blue abstract painting (artist unknown).
- Brickwork drawing from an antique store in San Francisco.
- Photographs by Mickey Smith.

(post by Ruth Parsons, Glenn Tuma and Alexandra Andrews, photo credit: Hannah Thomson for J.Crew)

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