A striped rugby shirt, green shorts, and a red canoe make a better advertisement for summer than another empty beach. In J.Crew’s Camp Crew campaign, the men are paddling, running across the lawn, or piling onto one another’s shoulders by the water. The clothes have a setting and something to do.
Photographed by Brett Lloyd, the campaign puts a large cast into a lakeside camp complete with pennants, wooden cabins, and an improbable supply of good knitwear. It launched June 2, with Jasmine Tookes, Josephine Skriver, Martha Hunt, Sara Sampaio, and Taylor Hill among the returning faces. The women may lead the reunion, but the men give the pictures much of their physical comedy.
The canoe photograph is the clearest menswear statement. A navy-and-white striped rugby sits alongside a red short-sleeve knit and a white sweater, with a green cap and shorts interrupting the primary colors. There is no attempt to make the group match. Each outfit is simple; together, they give the boat the look of a particularly well-stocked cabin.
Elsewhere, a purple tee goes over a dark green long-sleeve top, above loose tan drawstring shorts. A blue bandana finishes the picture. The slightly ungainly layering is part of the appeal: these look like clothes pulled from a bag before heading outside. A blue quarter-zip and pale purple shorts keep the same easy proportions in a scene on the lawn.
The porch portrait makes room for louder knitwear, from broad stripes to saturated red and green. This is where the catalog connection becomes most persuasive. There are enough colors and personalities in the frame to let the eye wander, rather than one product demanding all the attention.
The catalog connection is deliberate. Speaking to Fast Company, J.Crew chief marketing officer Julia Collier pointed to “the aspirational storytelling and sense of adventure that defined the brand in the late ’80s and ’90s.” The references show up in the pennants and camp lettering, but a crowded canoe or a dock full of mismatched swim trunks carries the idea further.
Camp Crew sells a very attractive version of communal inconvenience: shared cabins, damp clothes, and somebody insisting on another race. J.Crew has supplied the sweaters. Everyone else can argue over who has to paddle.