GQ has visited the J.Crew Men’s Shop, 1040 Madison Avenue (at 79th Street), New York, NY; 212-453-2677.
Up until now, J.Crew’s menswear presence in New York has mostly been a downtown affair. Their Soho Men’s Shop and Tribeca Liquor Store locations have become bookmarked destinations for guys looking for modern-yet-classic, Americana-inspired suiting, casualwear, and accessories. Now they’re heading north. “Upper East Side guys kept traveling downtown to our Liquor Store and asking, ‘When are you going to open a store uptown?’ ” says J.Crew menswear designer (and GQ Best New Designer finalist) Frank Muytjens. “The answer is now.” The two-story store, which opens to the public this afternoon, makes its home on the site of a former bank. Besides the façade, and a vault which now houses hand-selected vintage pieces, the fixtures from the space’s financial past are no longer intact. In their place are all of the lived-in and comfortable items you’ve come to love from J.Crew: coffee table books from the likes of Malcolm McLaren and Robert Longo, and imported Japanese fashion magazines; limited-edition collaborations and matured-to-perfection vintage finds; and a few items that will be sold exclusively at the UES location. – from GQ