JCRT Plaid Shirts Inspired by 80s and 90s Alt Records

JCRT plaid shirts

When I first encountered this new line of JCRT plaid shirts, I was scrolling through a Facebook shoegaze group. My takeaway was that this was some sort of misguided musical appropriation by J.Crew (not unlike that time The Gap made a Joy Division shirt). The gazers griped about the price and the horror of it all, but the shirts stuck with me. So I Googled J.Crew x My Bloody Valentine and J.Crew x Cocteau Twins to find out the story, but I got nowhere. That’s because these JCRT plaid shirts aren’t by the preppy clothier, but rather by Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra–a pair of lumberjack bears. I was intrigued.

JCRT plaids: Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra
Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra wearing their JCRT plaids

The designers met at a nightclub in 1994, and they were both wearing plaid. Both had been taught tailoring by their grandmothers. And they both loved music. According to their website, the duo “joined forces to dress the high demand of the downtown New York film and music scene.” Fast forward a couple decades, and they launched a collection of shirts in homage to some of the greatest albums of all time.

JCRT plaid My Bloody Valentine Loveless
JCRT plaid homage to My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless

This is the first shirt I saw in the collection. It was initially quite controversial: $125 for a plaid shirt? With fit names like “Brooklyn” and “Portland,” were these for hipsters only? What, no Slowdive shirt?

JCRT plaid The Cure 17 Seconds
JCRT plaid homage to The Cure’s Seventeen Seconds

Well, (so far) there’s no Slowdive shirt (though a video clip shows them printing and cutting other classics from Bowie to Bronski Beat, so, ya never know). As for price, these are hand-cut-and-sewn shirts, and this is a blog read by collectors who think nothing of dropping upwards of a Benjamin on a piece of plastic. As for hipsterdom, while apparently we can thank Costello and Tagliapietra for the lumbersexual [it’s even in the OED!] craze, they make their JCRT line in sizes up to 4x…and feature people over age 40 wearing them.

JCRT plaid Sinead O'Connor The Lion and the Cobra
JCRT plaid homage to Sinead O’Connor’s The Lion and the Cobra

Also, it has to be noted that their copywriter has an awesome job. For the Sinead O’Connor-inspired shirt:

This plaid has a shaved head, it wears combat boots, it’s Catholic, it’s not Catholic, it’s highly controversial and makes you want to listen loudly.

JCRT plaid Depeche Mode Violator

For the Depeche Mode-inspired shirt:

This plaid doesn’t want to say a word about itself. it just wants you to ‘Enjoy The Silence.’ But if it could speak, it would rather tell you it’s ‘all you ever wanted’ and ‘all you ever needed’.

I’ll let the inconsistency of the punctuation above slide (but hey guys, I’ll proofread your site for pay in plaid! Email me!) because they’re also selling the albums–including Cocteau Twins on CASSETTE.

JCRT plaid Cocteau Twins Blue Bell Knoll
JCRT plaid homage to the Cocteau Twins’ Blue Bell Knoll with CASSETTE TAPE

Anyway, while this blog has been on a hiatus, I’ve taken another office job. Are these JCRT plaids that sweet spot between dressing “too professionally” and looking like a “tech bro”? Perhaps. The JCRT website currently has a deal where you can buy four and get one free, so if you’re looking to redo your wardrobe, that’s $100 a shirt. The collection includes plaids in homage to My Bloody Valentine, The Cure, The Cocteau Twins, Depeche Mode, Sinead O’Connor, The Magnetic Fields and ELO. JC and RT, nice job! And if you’re reading, what about Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psycho Candy or Darklands next???