J. Crew has been my Midwest godsend to me, ever since I discovered how important it is to 'dress for success' and look presentable. J. Crew has SAVED me at those crucial moments, meeting the mother of a boyfriend, meeting someone you have to impress, going on those college interviews (I wore my favorite ivy green blazer to all of them with leather knobby buttons.)
The preppy meets quirky style is fitting for the Plaza clientele, and even more smartly placed beside Anthropologie for those wayward shoppers that like to dress both classic and eclectic.
The manager is great, friendly towards everyone - he establishes a good name for J.Crew and his staff by schmoozing up the women who religiously shop there. My sister is a DIE HARD J.Crew addict - she's one of those customer's that establishes relationships with the people working there, they know her by name, and if she didn' t come in for a week - they would be concerned.
I myself like to layer J.Crew with the vintage pieces I find in the area. J.Crew is good for basics and lately, as their name has spread over the last decade to become more commercial, some surprisingly detailed and vintage-inspired statement pieces as well.
For winter and fall, their classic peacoats and trenches in every color are always popular, along with their cable-knit sweaters and anything cashmere. In spring and summer, their flip-flops are on every woman's feet and J.Crew bathing suits have the most options in the most colors of any clothing store I know.
The problem with this particular Plaza location, is that it suffers from constantly being picked over. It carries the bare minimum of the latest styles, and the sizes you want are always gone in a flash, with the exception of those few sizes few people wear filling the sale rack in the back of the store for the next half year.
Their sale rack is ridiculous. It sells the pieces no one wants in the sizes few people wear and that's on a good day! Sale racks are good only when you want to actually wear the clothes on it - but it's no good to sell a pea green t-shirt with an anchor on it in December. That's another thing, their sales are very seasonally backwards - when other stores place their summer things on sale in late July, for J.Crew, it's more like September - too little, too late!
I realized there was a problem with their stock after subscribing to the J.Crew magazine and seeing all the wonderful options I had never seen in the stores, pages and pages and pages gone unsold in Kansas City! And when I visited the J.Crew at Oak Park, even that location carried much more than on the Plaza.
Your best bet, if you're like me, and shop J.Crew (and I'm sure you already know this then), is to stick to the catalogue OR visit the Oak Park location, but the Plaza is pretty useless, good for a few of their sweaters and pants and headbands - and that's it! read more