J. Crew is now in the vintage hat buisness...

Rick Blaine · Feb 4, 2008

Snrbfshn · Feb 4, 2008

Whoa!

Using their pricing on the straw hats, my 20 or 30 straws must be worth somewhere around oh, say, $100,000.

MrFusion · Feb 4, 2008

That's really sad. Guess we will be seeing the young crowd wearing more hats - which isn't a bad thing - they will just be paying too much for what they are getting.

Feraud · Feb 4, 2008

Half of those hats look to be in bad condition.

JCrew is not the first (nor will be the last) company to feature a vintage selection.

See my comment here regarding Ralph Lauren's $4200. dollar price tag on a vintage jacket.

MrFusion · Feb 4, 2008

Feraud said:
Half of those hats look to be in bad condition.

JCrew is not the first (nor will be the last) company to feature a vintage selection.

See my comment here regarding Ralph Lauren's $4200. dollar price tag on a vintage jacket.

Maybe they consider the hats "distressed", you know, like furniture? And they charge you extra for that service! lol

Colby Jack · Feb 4, 2008

Some people would pay anything to pretend they're hip!

Feraud · Feb 4, 2008

I think people pay not knowing any better.

Just as bad are the $275. sunglasses!

Pilgrim · Feb 4, 2008

I don't understand how outfits like J. Crew, The Buckle and others charge 6 to 10 times what a garment is worth. There must be a ton of people in the world who are convinced that the more you pay for something, the better it is.

And these people vote. Scary.

Dinerman · Feb 4, 2008

You'd think they'd at least un-squish them.

duggap · Feb 4, 2008

You know, it makes me wonder how they got enough hats to fill orders from all over the country. I would almost bet they are new and meant to look old.

J. M. Stovall · Feb 4, 2008

They don't want to sell a bunch of hats, just a few to make themselves look "cool".

Dinerman · Feb 4, 2008

If most of the companies weren't long out of business, I'd agree with that. I wonder how many of these they actually sell.

Look at the sizes, too. I can't imagine they move that many 6-3/4s, especially at that price. Heck, on ebay, you can't hardly give that size away, especially not in a stingy.

Spellflower · Feb 4, 2008

Dinerman said:
You'd think they'd at least un-squish them.

You, sir, clearly have no fashion sense!lol

Their fashion experts looked long and hard to find hats with the perfect squishes. You can't get a squish like that easily nowadays. that's why they cost so much!

Jovan · Feb 4, 2008

MrFusion said:
That's really sad. Guess we will be seeing the young crowd wearing more hats - which isn't a bad thing - they will just be paying too much for what they are getting.

Exactly.

Distressed aside... if hats come back into fashion, that can only be a good thing. I've seen a tendency here to poopoo modern versions of things we like from the past. Yes, not quite what it should be, but I like to give things the benefit of the doubt and say: It's not a bad start.

Fletch · Feb 4, 2008

I just really feel bad for the vintage thing being co-opted by a large, trendy company for (apparently) the express purpose of ripping off the uninitiated.

EricH · Feb 4, 2008

My bet is they are leftovers from photo shoots. Listing them shows how hip they are. If they sell, its a few bucks in the till.

saturnoir · Feb 5, 2008

Pilgrim said:
I don't understand how outfits like J. Crew, The Buckle and others charge 6 to 10 times what a garment is worth. There must be a ton of people in the world who are convinced that the more you pay for something, the better it is.

And these people vote. Scary.

To people who would shop at J. Crew, the garment is worth what is says on the tag. Where else are they shopping to know the difference? To them, this is vintage. It says so on the tag.

jamespowers · Feb 5, 2008

Interesting. You have a Champ priced the same as a Resistol.

Kind of like selling a Cadillac and a Chevrolet for the same price---the price of the Cadillac. :eusa_doh:

AlanC · Feb 5, 2008

saturnoir said:
To people who would shop at J. Crew, the garment is worth what is says on the tag. Where else are they shopping to know the difference? To them, this is vintage. It says so on the tag.

I shop at J.Crew, but only on clearance.

I picked up a couple of great patch tweed flat caps on clearance around Christmas. They're good for socks, belts, the odd tie and accessory. I probably wouldn't recommend being lured in by those hats, though!

nulty · Feb 5, 2008

I'm an admitted tragically addicted lost j.crew soul myself. We won't go into that part of my psyche here though. A couple thoughts on this.

In the interest of commerce some of us have to be pleased at this venture as it should only mean the stock of some product we might sell off has just hit a new high in a yet barely tapped , possibly tentative market. It would seem this can only help...

Usually when something I appreciate becomes "mainstream" it loses it's lustre and I move on. I've been doing vintage longer than jcrew has been in existence so what will this do to my fragile existential self ?

Mickey Drexler is obviously a baby boomer with the same fascination with the material past as many of us out there have..he has dangled vintage watches and restored Toyota Land Cruisers in front of us and J.Crew has always toyed with "classic" style from a cursory vintage view point. Hats are making a comeback..

Why not throw in some recent props picked up for a few sheckles in Rome market and see what happens..

Or Maybe Mr. Drexler couldn't sell them on Ebay so he's using his own site and saving the listing fees...

J. Crew is now in the vintage hat buisness...

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