J. Crew’s Nail-Polish-Gate
I can’t believe the uproar over the creative used in an email J. Crew sent to customers last week. J. Crew president and esteemed creative director Jenna Lyons shared a few of her favorite products in the email feature titled “Saturday With Jenna.”
One of those things is a hot-pink Essie nail polish, which Lyons’ young son Beckett is sporting in the photo. Horrors!
People seemed particularly upset by the photo’s caption, which reads, “Lucky for me I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in neon.”
The social conservative outcry was loud—and ridiculous. For instance, a column from psychiatrist and Fox News contributor Keith Ablow said: “This is a dramatic example of the way that our culture is being encouraged to abandon all trappings of gender identity.”
Really? We have nothing else to worry about in the world today?
Sure, Beckett may get teased on the playground in a few years (when pink will most likely no longer be his favorite color and he probably won’t be wearing toenail polish), but he’ll be fine. His mother isn’t ruining him for life.
(Though he is slightly spoiled getting to play around with a salon-quality polish brand like Essie. My sister and I could only use that Tinkerbell crap back in the ‘70s.)
Kids love nail polish. A friend’s three-year old painted a few of my husband’s fingernails last week—which later sent him tearing around the house looking for nail polish remover when he realized it doesn’t just wash off.
Years ago, when my nephew was about the same age as Becket, he showed up for a visit from the U.K. with the toenails on one foot painted. Okay, they weren’t painted hot pink (it was blue or green I think), but still.
I’m sure my parents were slightly horrified by this; it didn’t help that, like Beckett, my nephew had longish blonde hair with a slight curl, and lots of people thought he was a little girl. But they went with it. And my nephew has turned out beautifully. (No, he is not a girl now.)
Anyway, getting back to J. Crew, the cataloger/retailer is having the last laugh. It’s getting a ton of publicity—and the nail polish in question is sold out on its website.
April 14th, 2011 at 4:04 pm
Maybe that was the whole intention for sales to skyrocket. Great idea.
April 14th, 2011 at 5:09 pm
This is a riot! My husband had a day of beauty at a well known spa the week of our wedding and decided to get his toenails painted a lovely shade of purple irridescent to surprize me on our wedding night. I thought it was so funny and could not stop laughing! Have people lost all the fun in life? I did make my husband remove it before we went out to the pool and beach on our honeymoon! But seriously give me a break people, it is fun to do crazy things every now and then no matter what age and this little guy likes pink now and thinks having his toes painted is fun! Leave him a lone!…also I am so glad J. Crew is capitalizing on the media storm..good for them!
April 15th, 2011 at 2:04 pm
Wouldn’t it be great if other catalogers added images of their male models sporting nail polish?!
Beckett won’t be affected by this incident at all…it’s all those other little boys forced to “man up” at a young age (don’t cry, be a bully, don’t be a sissy, etc.) who will, unfortunately, be affected for life.
April 20th, 2011 at 9:35 am
This whole controversy reminds me of the time my 3-year-old wanted Pocket Pals. Remember those? Was I horrified to buy him these little dolls? Not really. Especially when I saw him setting up street scenes with his Lego buildings and crashing into both with his matchbox collection. The more we as parents overreact the more the kids feel our anxiety. Cool it. There are bigger battles ahead when they’re teenagers.
April 25th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
Ozzie Osborne wears nail polish and he seems just fine.