J Crash: When Malia and Sasha Wore the Coats of the Year

As reported on the New York Times Technology blog, J Crew’s Web site crashed on Tuesday after news got out that the Obama girls were wearing Crewcuts coats.

But as savvy NYT critics noted, the J Crew website crashes—or is painfully slow—lots of times; don’t blame the Obamas for its bad performance.

I confess: I contributed to the J Crash, if that’s what it was, yesterday evening

I clicked on, sometime around 7 p.m., because I was curious to see exactly what the girls had worn to the inauguration. Although my daughters have a couple of choice Crewcuts, I usually avoid that children’s label because I find it wildly overpriced in relation to its quality. Wildly.

So I was expecting to find expensive but pretty coats and did indeed find one, but only one, this pink trench.

(Seriously, I’d rather call a spring jacket for a child a spring jacket. There are later years in which to wear trenches.) Like I anticipated: pretty and expensive ($168).

I also saw a note to the gentle public: Malia and Sasha Obama’s coats were made just for them, and versions of their looks would be made available at a later date.

I though that the girls looked absolutely darling, and would have looked darling no matter what they were wearing, because, well, they are darling, and no clothing, no matter how fancy or simple, could add or detract from their overall darlingness.

So I don’t think I’ll scramble to outfit my darlings in similar J Crew style. Rather, I’ll fix in my memory the way that the girls’ parents lovingly look at them, lovingly discuss them with respect and honor, and will follow those stylish cues.

(And, truth be told, I hope I do that without any prompting!)