J. Crew Drops Heritage Denim Collaboration With Lee For Spring
J. Crew’s prep sensibility meets Lee’s historic silhouettes.
More than a century of hard-working denim heritage is getting a fresh look for a new season, as historic denim makers Lee team with J. Crew in a prep-meets-rugged collaboration for the first time ever.
Available online now at both J. Crew and Lee, plus select J. Crew stories, the collection merges the East Coast Ivy leanings of J. Crew with Lee’s utterly classic denim silhouettes in a capsule spanning outerwear, Western shirts and of course, revamped jeans aplenty. While women’s and kids offerings also make up the partnership, it’s the menswear that’s near-perfect for the season at hand. Staples like the Lee Storm Rider Jacket are given a distinctly J. Crew twist, including a custom J. Crew plaid lining crafted for the famed trucker jacket silhouette.
J. Crew is no stranger to workwear icons in its own right, including the revival of its historically inspired Wallace & Barnes line last fall, a collection that often leans heavily on military silhouettes and classic staples that would make Hemingway proud. The outfitter also took on a retro-tinged outlook in partnering with Oscar winner Adrien Brody last winter, while the latest J. Crew x Lee Spring Collection fuses Western style with J. Crew’s tasteful spin on mid-century Americana.
The collection spares no expense in tapping into inspiration from Lee’s advertising archives, while premium materials are front and center across the entire lineup. Perhaps most notable is the use of Kaihara and Kurabo Japanese selvedge denim sourced from two iconic mills. Lee and J. Crew also nod to the 1970s in particular with vintage-inspired labels, while durable and eye-catching hardware offers a handsome finish across trucker jackets and blue jeans.
As Lee says, the collection is “designed to evolve with wear,” spanning shades of natural cotton and spring-forward light yellow to expertly faded indigo blue, along with an utterly perfect mid-wash denim trucker jacket. “This collaboration felt incredibly natural,” said Olympia Gayot, Creative Director of J. Crew Women’s & Kids. “Lee represents an essential part of American denim heritage,” she said, adding that the companies looked to deliver a collection that was “polished but relaxed, thoughtful but unfussy,” focused on “authentic and enduring… wardrobe staples you reach for instinctively and keep for years.”
Boasting durable Japanese selvedge denim construction, a pair of medium wash jeans (priced accessibly for selvedge denim at $187.99) are an ideal spring wardrobe addition alongside a J. Crew x Lee Western-style Oxford shirt (priced in premium fashion at $167.99), while the must-buy collaborative Storm Rider Jacket clocks in for dependable seasonal style at $267.99. While stock is still available, snap up a piece of heritage-meets-prep perfection via the hot-selling J. Crew x Lee Spring Collection.