J. Crew sent out an email today promoting their line of specially designed shirts that can be worn untucked. A flapping shirttail is one of the more hotly debated areas of menswear today, not so much for its form, as it’s long been accepted, but for its marketing. The menswear label Untuckit has been widely panned for inventing what had already been invented, a shirt with shorter tails. But their real innovation is in their marketing. Untuckit takes all the guesswork out of buying clothes by cutting their shirttails just so, then clearly labeling how you’re supposed to wear their shirts in case you’re unsure. “It makes you wonder why no one has started a baseball cap brand called Backwardzz,” Alex Williams wrote in The New York Times.
Of course, anyone can market their shirts as being untuck-able since all you need is a copywriter and shorter shirttail. For the last year, J. Crew has been marketing their sportier shirts as Untucked (that’s the official name, which is why it’s capitalized). Their email today reads: “Our Untucked shirt has become a customer favorite, thanks to a shorter hem designed to be worn (you guessed it) untucked.”
Amazingly, nearly all of J. Crew’s promotional photos feature their Untucked shirts worn … half-tucked? Mostly tucked? French tucked? Either way, something modifying the word tucked. Let’s run through some of the product photos on their website right now:
This look is especially bad. Never wear a tie without a tailored jacket:
This one is a little better in terms of untucked-ness. If you round up, it qualifies as fully untucked. I’m mostly including it because of the masterful, half-shoulder jacket move. (Potentially a new outerwear line?)
OK, back to tucked shirts:
This man clearly has zero fucks to give about J. Crew’s new marketing campaign. He’s out here flouting the rules, throwing a middle finger to the J. Crew execs, and tucking in his shirt despite the very clear Untucked label. Look at his expression. This man is cold. (Also, here’s a link to the product page if you dare question my integrity to report this story accurately).
Finally, a product photo of an untucked shirt. But, wait! The shirttail isn’t even that short! These are just J. Crew’s regular-ass shirts!! Scandalous.
