Aimee Howarth brings you an interview with The Yorker directors on the final day of the advent articles
Aimee Howarth speaks to YUSU's sabbatical officers about their Christmas Day routine for day 17 of the advent calendar
For the final time this term, Vicky Morris updates you on this weeks film news
50 years after the publication of 'James and the Giant Peach', the works of Roald Dahl continue to celebrate success.
Aimed specifically at middle-class and upper-middle class students, Jack Wills has become synonymous with student life: even if you are not wearing it, the chances are you have a strong opinion about it. Being self-proclaimed ‘University Outletters’ and ‘Outfitters to the Gentry’ has led to many heated discussions about the questionably elitist branding and pricing of JW products.
Established in Salcombe, Devon in 1999, Jack Wills embodies a public school style, harking back to the ideals and inspiration of vintage British heritage, becoming a student specific British institution in only 10 short years. However, its specific target audience has meant that JW has become far more than a fashion brand. To be emblazoned with the JW logo has also become a visible and prominent class branding within the student community.
The stereotypical JW patron can normally be identified by back-combed hair, low slung track pants, sports stash, a gilet, the ever important pashmina and either Ugg boots or flip-flops (which both seem to be interchangeable between the summer and winter months). This basic uniform has created a self-conceited anti-fashion statement. The effort required to achieve JW’s signature nonchalant attitude has taken leisure wear to new class heights, steering firmly clear of the adidas-wearing, working class stereotype and creating a caricature ‘Rah’ to rival the ‘Chav’.
The extent to which these caricatures exist on a campus like York is variable and sporadic, and yet a short train journey up to the architecturally similar, yet much smaller Durham produces quite a different result. A popular destination for Oxbridge rejects, Durham epitomized the invasion of the Jack Wills Army. A short walk by the cathedral will reveal a clear uniform amongst both males and females, with the public school ethos of several Durham colleges providing the perfect breeding ground for this JW phenomenon.
As well as just providing a uniform, however, Jack Wills has cashed in on its unique and highly successful branding to create a complete enterprise, asking once again at what point do your retail purchases reflect a conscious lifestyle choice? The Jack Wills website is a perfectly executed example of the brand’s influence over all aspects of life. As well as purchasing a JW jumper for £69, why not borrow a selection of classic books from the JW library? You could even support the JW unsigned bands, or if you want to stretch that student budget a little further invest in a skiing holiday where JW Ambassadors can make sure you party with the ‘best people’. Why not attend a JW party, or buy tickets to the JW Varsity Polo Competition and watch Eton and Harrow, Oxford and Cambridge battle it out?
Despite this amazingly successful and well executed branding, how many university students in this day and age are polo-playing, classics-reading, après-ski socialites? And if a student is dressed head to toe in their favourite Jack Wills items, does this mean they strive to adopt the lifestyle? The answer to this question is obviously highly dependent on individual differences and yet a brand of such social standing which has an online message-board so you can ‘enrich your life with the wisdom of fellow Willites’ unavoidably becomes extremely exclusive rather than inclusive, shrouding the brand in perceptions of snobbery and pretence.
Therefore, despite its expense, Jack Wills’ diverse marketing strategies and signature vintage concept has become part of university culture, embodying a uniform and a lifestyle for the student ‘gentry’. Yet regardless of who wears Jack Wills or what background they come from, the brand itself openly trades on the back of its perceptions of wealth, stature and upper-class superiority. The question therefore remains, when you buy Jack Wills clothing, are you simply buying a fashion item or are you investing in a class-specific lifestyle?
The above poster is clearly from the lower classes. She is probably just a jockey and jealous that she doesn't own the horse.
comment deleted by the author @20: I'm confused by your logic. People should be allowed to wear what they like, so long as you like it too? Jack Wills has a clear image, that of rugger, polo and so on. If I want to associate myself with that brand, for whatever reason – I like rugby, I like people thinking I like rugby or, even more ludicrously, I like the clothes – what’s the problem?
Labelling an entire brand as "clothes for sloanes" is pretty unreasonable. You wouldn’t generalise about people with double-barrelled names, surely?
I think there are enough chips on the shoulders of commentators here to keep efes going for a month!
#20 ... Nike associates itself with football, basketball and athletics, less 'upper class' persuits, yet a decent pair of nike trainers will set you back as much as a JW pair of shoes.
We don't get all class-war on people who buy these expensive sports brands, or who wear levis, or ben sherman.
A new Man Utd goalie shirt costs £50. So does a JW shirt, but not many people would frown upon the football fan as an upper class nonce who spends £50 on a shirt. IMHO its much more sensible to save up for a decent, long-lasting piece of clothing than it is to piss it away in toffs and gallery every week.
This inverted snobbery is just as bad as looking down upon people for wearing 'chavvy' clothing.
We all wear clothes to associate ourselves with sports, institutions, eras in fashion, lifestyles etc...
If we're going to attack JW wearers in this weeks column i expect an all-out assault on goths, scarf-wearers, flat-cap fans, and the wellington-boot brigade invading our countryside like the plague...
#24 well said. I own many football shirts and they aren't cheap.
Charlotte, I am from a working class family and have been bought a pair of JW joggers as every other pair I get are sh*te.
What should I do madam? Not wear them so dimwitted people like yourself don't stereotype me? Think before you speak, luv.
Buy clothes because of their quality, comfort and aesthetics; the writing on the label is unimportant. If JW happen to make clothes that satisfy all 3 of the above conditions then why not buy them? If you're buying purely because of the name on the label, then you perhaps need to stop and think about why you're doing that. And indeed similarly, if you deliberately avoid them. The associated image exists only in the minds of the people around you.
Now you wouldn't catch me in a Polo shirt with my collar up (it doesn't suit me), but more often than not you do get what you pay for with clothes. The more you pay, the better tailored and longer-lasting they are in my experience. I'd rather save up for a few months to buy a good shirt than buy a worse one each month.
I think the clothes look utterly foul and the whole branding of them is both pretentious and ludicrous. If I wanted this kind of snobbery I would have reapplied to Oxford.
You're at York, get real.
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