Finally, having a boyfriend who’s into menswear paid off for somebody. Maddie Heldman, a 22-year-old Chicagoan, was browsing the J.Crew Men’s Instagram account after her partner sent her some news about the beloved and revamped mall brand. That’s when she saw them. “I saw the pants and immediately loved them,” she told me over email. The pants are your average khaki-colored chinos, only swelled to such enormous proportions that J.Crew officially calls the style the “Giant-fit chino.” Heldman hustled to the J.Crew on Michigan Avenue and managed to snag the very last pair of the pants in her size.
J.Crew unveiled the new fit as part of its new fall collection last week, the first designed by Noah founder and former Supreme creative director Brendon Babenzien. So far, J.Crew’s comeback has been defined by its slow-rolling and patiently simmered approach. And it would have been right in line with the brand’s strategy if it took some time for Babenzien’s new freaked-prep vibe to fully gestate with J.Crew fans. Giant-fit chinos—a style resurrected from the J.Crew archive—apparently do not need time to catch on, though. The pants have emerged as an unlikely hit.
“All the smaller sizes in the store were almost sold out,” Heldman reports. And it’s not just the girlfriends of male J.Crew wearers getting in on the oversized fun—Heldman's boyfriend grabbed a pair, too. Luis Morales, a designer in New York, wasn’t sure the new J.Crew was for him—at first. “I felt like my style evolution had moved past this particular aesthetic,” he said. “That was until I saw the Giant Fit Chinos.” He bought a pair. The online listing for the pants seem to confirm as much: several sizes of the plain khaki Giant Chinos are listed as backordered until October 26th. “The Giant Fit Chinos have exceeded our expectations and are doing great!” a spokesperson for the brand reported enthusiastically over email. “They have quickly become one of the most popular pieces from the new collection.” So how did the new fit of an old staple become this collection’s immediate best seller?