J Crew

I went to an incredibly preppy private high school. We were required to wear collared tucked in shirts and our shorts/​skirts had to be longer than finger tip length. And seniors were rewarded by being allowed to wear dresses everyday– whoopie. As for the boys… a shirt and tie everyday! A uniform probably would have been easier, but thanks to J Crew I adapted to my prepster lifestyle.
Each month I eagerly awaited the J Crew catalog to be delivered to my house and when it came I ordered it all: polo shirts, khaki skirts, and even bathing suits for my weekends on the Florida beaches. So imagine how excited I was when a J Crew opened in my local Town Center Mall. So much so that I actually applied for a job at the new J Crew, but I quickly learned that selling clothes wasn’t nearly as fun as buying them and the whole working in the retail world lasted about a day.
When I left Florida for college I don’t think I ever stepped foot in J Crew again… ta ta khaki skirts and hello black pants and tank tops (i couldn’t get enough of the black pant phase those first few years in college).
I’ve been doing some bathing suit shopping over the past few weeks and have had trouble finding a cute bikini that’s not super cheesy looking. Then I remember that J Crew used to have some fabulous bikinis back in my prepster days so I stopped in… and like my style this J Crew has changed and has opened up in a brand new location within the Town Center Mall.
Everything in here is still super preppy, but some of it is so cute that it had me shopping once again for country club looking clothing. And guess what… I actually found an adorable seersucker bathing suit that fit me perfectly and was half the price of the ugly suits I had been looking at in the department stores. And I couldn’t resist an adorable polka dot dress as well!
The gals who work at this J Crew are also incredibly sweet and helpful… I may have stayed away for 10 years, but I think it may just be time to add a little preppy style back into my wardrobe.