Happy Friday! Welcome to Catalog Police, where I review various catalogs and lookbooks to pinpoint the bad, the mediocre and the over-priced.
Today, we will be discussing the Madewell x Sézane collaboration. For the uninitiated, Sézane is a French brand that is famous for its relaxed-basics-with-flair. Many style sites have hailed this collection as the best thing since baguettes and brie. Hold on to your berets, folks — we’ll see if it lives up to the hype.
This $125 T-shirt gets 5 points for being all-silk. But it loses 20 points for the infantile Minnie Mouse hairbow print.
So far, this just looks like a J.Crew ad. (Maybe because J.Crew owns Madewell — and that’s the extent of their aesthetic?)
Remember the opening scene of Working Girl? Melanie Griffith glides toward Battery Park on the Staten Island Ferry, poised to conquer inner-office sexism. Her armor for said battle? Huge sneakers with her skirt suit.
Can we just end this trend right now? And while we’re at it, let’s abolish socks and sandals.
Replace the words “La Superbe” with “St. Francis Academy” and you’ve got yourself a gym uniform.
Side note: This collaboration was inspired by this insipid slogan sweatshirt, which costs an appalling $85 and is already sold out everywhere. Why in the name of all that is good and holy would you choose this sweatshirt as THE hot-ticket item of the season?
Don’t be fooled. This is just a long T-shirt — that costs $188.
The sweater and coat are okay — but that skirt looks like a garbage bag fastened by Velcro. (And if I’m paying $450 for a leather skirt, it better not come with a monster wrinkle cob-webbing across my thighs.)
My verdict? These clothes are the wardrobe equivalent of a Klonopin. Worse than normcore — because these boring clothes’ French lineage suggests an other-wordy chicness that simply does not exist in these photos or the designs.
Madewell, here’s a tip: Cut the cord from your corporate parent. J.Crew with a French accent is just J’Crew.