J. Crew like a lot of retailers in the women’s space sort of fell on its face somewhere around the second part of 2010, making downward adjustments to quality in the face of rising material costs. Not suprisingly as a result the stores look like hell. At the time it was publically traded on Wall Street, went private, cleaned itself up and now we’re seeing via catalogs and store visits that it’s clearly once again hitting its stride.

The image above is from its February catalog, which includes the announcement of “The Cashmere Shop” at its online store. Cashmere is hardly new for J.Crew but when this company is working, its catalog images makes you feel like, oh wow, even though we’re facing Spring, darn, I need that short-sleeved cashmere camisole in my life not to mention that minimalist green and navy striped silk blouse and chiffon skirt!

See the blouse and skirt on the next page.

Check out Nike’s Cortez and Waffle Racer in special make up colors you will only find at J.Crew. They’re listed under women’s shoes, but sizing is unisex.

See more colors on the next page.

J.Crew’s design collaboration with Prabal Gurung is now on line. This partnership came as part of Gurung’s prize for winning runner up for CFDA’s Fashion Fund Award. There are a total of six pieces and it’s a very limited run of about 50 per item. Prices range from about $200-$400, a nice discount off of Gurung’s normal label, which starts at about $500. We liked the tuxedo pants featured above the best, but some of you may like the “Exploding Bow” tops, which are about as girly girl as you can get and would be perfect for a summer cocktail or dinner party. See them on the next page.

Was wondering where the heck NY fashion photographer Julia Chesky was an it turns out she moved recently and got hit by a double whammy of Mercury retrograde. Anyway, her windows are back, including this image from the freshly relaunched SoHo Chanel store. What’s great about Chesky, too, is she’s willing to have an opinion and she does a hilarious rant on some other SoHo windows:

Let’s not even touch the merchandising fail going on with some places just yet. I think Soho and I might end our evening attempts and stick to random fun day shots because this made me sad, Boston Newbury Street sad. New York, we cannot be on the same level of Boston. That’s just blasphemy! No offense to my Boston readers.

See one of the J.Crew window she has ish with on the next page. Not sure if J.Crew meant to make its female mannequin look like it was sort of packing, but I doubt it!

As part of a series on dream jobs, Oprah checked in with J.Crew’s Exectuive Creative Director, Jenna Lyons, to see what she gets up to in a day. I’m mad that I couldn’t imbed the video, but in the capture above Jenna explains her shoe collection. On the next page, there’s also an image capture of Jenna in her sparkle harem pants. On the Oprah video, her life does indeed seem pretty idylic (supportive husband + adorable 3-year old), but still, J.Crew is a public company so the non-stop feeling of a piano hanging over your head has to pretty much always be there. Pressure baby, not everyone can handle it.

Via PreppyPrincess.

J. Crew fall 2010 images (ours are pulled from JCrewAholics) are floating around the fashion internets from a presentation the brand did late last week. The styling is nice and so is the photography, but underneath it all, the line is very low key. It’s funny about J.Crew…reading the comments about the brand and various blogs, they’re mostly positive, but there are always the one or two angry attacks, complaining about the clothing being stupid and overpriced. That perhaps is inevitable when your brand has some fashion status but is priced at the high-end of the chainstore spectrum. And truth be told some of  its merchandise is overpriced, but then there’s some cute, unique looks that are priced great. As such, it’s just not one of those stores (like Forever 21, H&M) where you can sweep in and buy something everytime you visit.