J Crew goes Hollywood
Posted by Eliza Gratton on January 25, 2011
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LOS ANGELES — When the team shooting J Crew’s spring 2011 catalog set up at the Hollywood sign, preparing to snap a leggy model wearing a pair of shiny gold shorts, no one was expecting that the scene would turn into something out of “Law & Order: Los Angeles.”
But this is a city full of surprises.
“A fireman walked into the shot, and all of a sudden over loudspeakers someone started yelling at us to leave because we were trespassing,” says Ashley Sargeant Price, a J Crew senior vice president who was on the set that day in October. The crew had secured a permit to shoot and the reprimand turned out to be a product of miscommunication, but a fully geared-up fireman and a low-flying helicopter made it into a few of the shots anyway.
“You can’t get more L.A. than that,” Price says.
The New York-based company, which is known for its studio-set catalogs full of elegantly disheveled models and quirky tomboy styling, sought out the sunny backdrop of L.A. to showcase its spring 2011 collection. To really channel the era of old Hollywood, actor Sam Page from “Mad Men” was cast to model the men’s collection and locations such as the Chateau Marmont, downtown’s Palace Theatre, Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House No. 22 , the Paramount Pictures lot and tree-lined North Hillcrest Road in Beverly Hills served as backdrops.
“We were inspired by the idea of old Hollywood glamour and tying that into American classics,” says Jenna Lyons, who, as president and executive creative director of J Crew, is the person responsible for creating the feel of the brand. “We’re making things look a little more polished, things like the hair, makeup and styling. It’s definitely an overarching theme for styling.”
Crew Cuts, J Crew’s kids’ collection, was shot on the Paramount lot to utilize the whimsical sets. “There are those funny extremes you can have nowhere else but in L.A.,” Lyons says.
But it’s the giant white letters of the Hollywood sign that have been a major draw for fashion companies in the last few years. YSL shot Claudia Schiffer for its spring 2009 campaign, standing in front of the “Y” in “Hollywood.”
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