We may have discovered where at least one of J. Peterman’s illustrators is moonlighting while the upscale apparel marketer’s catalog remains on hiatus. The fall preview edition of apparel catalog J. Crew features four full-page color illustrations of shoes, each pair depicted in Petermanesque style and detail.
The shoes are illustrated twice, once from a side view and a second time viewed from above; a small photograph of the shoes appears above the artwork. And if traditional square-inch analysis is any indication, J. Crew aims to sell a lot of these four shoes. Each of the styles gets its own full page of illustration, while the typical J. Crew shoe spread features about nine pairs of shoes.
Off-price women’s apparel cataloger Newport News is also dabbling in illustration. A full page in its preseason fall sale catalog depicts drawings of its “signature fit jeans in a rainbow of colors.” (Newport News’s approach to illustration veers away from the J. Peterman style, however, given that 20 pairs of vividly hued pants are crammed onto a single catalog page.)