J.Crew says `timeless,’ but hits the trends anyway

NEW YORK — The clothes J.Crew presented at New York Fashion Week on aren’t necessarily for next season. They’re supposed to last longer than that.

The brand’s mantra is timeless looks that still fit with the trends, head of women’s design Marissa Webb and her menswear counterpart, Frank Muytjens, said backstage before their first-ever appearance at the seasonal previews.

“We don’t want to be disposable fashion,” Webb added.

Even if they weren’t trying, however, the outfits on the models fit right in with everything else that been seen at the Lincoln Center tents.

Color has emerged as a big theme here — and that’s one of J.Crew’s specialties. Muytjens favored blue-on-blue combinations (down to blue boat shoes in a partnership with Quoddy), while Webb put together a hot pink blouse with lipstick-red, wide-leg trousers, and a yellow sequin tank top with a lavender suede skirt.

Mixing casual classics with unexpected dressier touches is another tradition for the label, leading a denim Western-style shirt to be paired with a sequin skirt, and a men’s windbreaker to top a blazer with gold buttons.

That goes with the effortless-chic vibe that has dominated the last six days of the catwalk.

“I didn’t style anything differently than I normally would. I still want it to be J.Crew,” Webb said.

Still, she said she woke up before her alarm clock in anticipation of the show.

And Muytjens acknowledged that he sweat this collection a little more, too. “I felt a little more pressure.”