Let's Talk - loving The Mothership

Loving The Mothership.  

Title sounds a little stalkerish, no? Yes. As a matter of fact, yes it does. And it's true. I visit The Mothership everyday. More than a few times a day. I may as well count as a stalker, or at least an ardent follower. Alexis started the J Crew Aficionada (JCA) blog around May of 2008. The timing was uncanny because a few months later, JCrew updated their website and things went to hell in a from a-secret-family-hideaway in the forest covered hills of We Can't Tell You Co, Italian leather, but Made in China handbag. Case in point, I received a $400 dress, instead of an $80 dress on one of my many orders. Of course those mixups still occur, but not like they did in the crazy summer of 08. Many of us wanted to give up on J Crew. Instead, a community was born by way of Alexis's blog and the frustrating experiences we shared courtesy of the new website and confused employees who weren't able to assist fast enough. Also at the same time, J Crew put out one of the most memorable collections for Fall. And we bonded over the gorgeous colors set against a backdrop of the misty streets of Prague or some other destination with cobblestone streets I'm sure to visit at some point in the future. 

Time has ticked on. Babies been born. J Crew Aficionada babies, of course. (slaps knee!) Some of us who were new at the time (moi) have taken a steady diet of J Crew, memorized product names, release seasons, corporate personnel and more, growing up into fine, self-appointed ambassadors of the brand. Some seasoned JCAs have branched out to other retailers, frustrated by a lack of true credit card benefits, not being properly recognized as a "good" or "loyal" customer and -- hell -- some have left because of a lack of a wishlist or save-for-later feature on the website. Just kidding about that last part. Actually, the website still sucks and is quite behind the times compared to other retailers. It's practically criminal to not have a wishlist/save-for-later and I have a clock ticking at the lower right-hand corner of this blog about that fact. Although the lack of said wishlist has been present for much longer. And then, some JCAs are still knocking on the door of the old J Crew, hoping someone will reopen that one. Through it all, and wherever you fall in or around these subgroups, the community continues on The Mothership. I don't think J Crew fully appreciates what Alexis's blog has done for the company.  So many purchases have been made because of our chit chat there. So many blogs born, also showing love to the brand, all because of her efforts, That's why I started calling it The Mothership. I saw it as this humongous ship of sorts that opened up and little baby ships rolled off of it.

Sometimes I take a step back from blogland and consider just how amazing the JCA community is. One such occasion happened just the other day. I got a wild and crazy hair for the bright dahlia Lolli pants. I decided to go to The Mothership because I remembered that I'd seen them on the weekly swap/exchange. I saw that Ibi was selling them, so I emailed her to see if she still had them available. She responded in good time to say no, but that she had just seen them at her local store. Well my phone may as well be encased with King Tut to see how it performs in the Afterlife because it's almost useless for me to try to get on the web with it in the here and now. It's 2 years old and that's like 10 years old in tech land. Anyway, I tried to connect thru my phone to said store, which I'd managed to pull up on my phone. It didn't work, so I called JC customer service. I should stop foolin' around and move their phone# to my speed dial section, but whatev. The JC cs rep gave me the store's phone number. After a couple phone calls -- 1st dude left me hanging -- I got a SA who found the Lollis in my size (6). Yay store. And an even bigger yay to Ibi! Thanks again! BTW, in addition to emailing Ibi, I'd put in a request for the pants on the Seeking swap/exchange thread. The next day, I got an email from MP who told me she saw the pants in her store and she dropped the phone # in the email, to boot. Amazing. I let her know I got them, but thanked her for getting in touch. Oh, I received my pants today and they are the bomb dot com. I didn't know I needed those pants. However, after seeing them mentioned a number of times on The Mothership and seeing them crop up in some blog posts, I decided I did. And the community came thru.

Pants aren't gonna save my life, which is too bad because the woolen twill Minnies (4) in warm taupe are pretty awesome, too. This is not an amazing story that would accompany any component of Extreme Makeover or some other tearjerker. However, off the top of my head I can only think of one person in my 'irl life' who hobbies clothes like I do and she lives in another state. Socializing in the JCA community has been fun and I appreciate it. (Super not looking at my stash of receipts right now or might have to take back a little of that last part.) So what the heck. Let's celebrate Alexis's 3 year anniversary five mo early. Share your favorite Mothership experience. How you've connected with others as a result. Or what you love about The Mothership, in general. It's up to you.

Chime in...

♥

Click here to get to links to past J Crew catalogs.

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p.s.  JCAs don't let JCAs shop final sale without pointing to the links to irl pics. It just might save you some money or a post on the swap/exchange. 

p.p. Remember Ebates. Click here to join.