J Crew Inspiration and Why It Looks SO Good!

Okay, notice the title. It said inspirations not my favorite place to shop at. The truth is that at this time there is no J Crew budget where I can spend $100 plus on pants or hundreds on jackets. BUT that does not mean that I can't go there and "oooh" and "ahhh" at their collections. I could seriously see create an entire wardrobe from this store.  I am even more obsessed because our J Crew store in ABQ had its opening yesterday. My little toddler guy watched me model outfits and said "looking pretty good momma." He has good taste!

 I started thinking what is it about their "look" and clothes that makes them so amazing!  I came up with a list that highlights some of the features the clothes have or how they are styled.

1. They use the unexpected to amp up any outfit-from a coat to shoes or bag. Here they pair plain jeans with a shocking pink coat and all of a sudden those plain jeans look WOW.

J Crew

2.  They layer, layer, layer. Sometimes one nice shirt is not enough. Take a sweater that has pattern but no wow factor and layer it over a long sleeve dress shirt. Now the sweater is a notice me! piece and all because of the barely seen collar, cuffs or shirt tails. The details are what make a look finished.

J Crew

3. Unusual Color Combos are the way to make a J Crew statement! I would never have thought of putting a striped tee with patterned dress pants but man oh man does it work! The "tie in" is that the stripe is in a shade of  green tying it to the pants.

J Crew

4. Use colorful shoes! Try to match your shoes in a complimentary color or in a different shade of what the color you are wearing. Think yellows and pinks or blues and greens or greens and yellows-the combos are endless!

Later on I will be doing more posts on my J Crew and Anthropologie obsession! Anyone else out there LOVE those two stores?