GQ Interview with Jack Carlson

J. Press Creative Director and President, Dr. Jack Carlson, backstage before the Fall/Winter ‘26 runway show - his third since joining the brand last year.

In an interview with GQ ahead of the show, Carlson stated: “From my perspective, a lot of what we need to do is doubling down on the things that make J. Press J. Press. You’re always going to have the fashion guy who was hoping for something way more avant‑garde, and you’re always going to have the self‑anointed reactionary guy whose personal definition of Ivy is the be‑all and end‑all. If you spent your whole time worrying about what this person or that person might say, you’d never really get anywhere.”

GQ writes: Carlson’s Fall/Winter 2026 collection, which was built around classic British textiles like tweed, Fox Brothers flannel, Barbour waxed cotton, and Fair Isle knits, is a nod to Ivy style’s origins as sporting clothes worn by the British aristocracy. It’s also, thanks to some cheeky iconography and pops of blaze orange, cobalt blue, and camo, unmistakably modern.

While creating the new collection, Carlson traveled to the Shetland Islands, a remote archipelago in northern Scotland, where sheep outnumber people ten to one. He describes how each Shaggy Dog is hand-brushed by a single craftsman with a traditional tool made from the head of a local flower. Scaling production of Shaggy Dog sweaters for the fall has been challenging, he admits, and the factory has been running around the clock to meet the deadline. Instead of moving production elsewhere, though, he plans to make the factory part of his long-term plan. “The answer is not, ‘Okay, we’re going to have to move to China.’ It’s growing the factory and growing the capacity right there in Shetland.”

GQ describes Carlson as a creative director who’s passionate about Ivy style and genuinely committed to doing things the right way. “We’re not just pumping out clothes,” says Carlson. “There is almost a higher purpose that we’re pursuing, and that makes it worthwhile in and of itself. J. Press is in some ways the last remaining standard-bearer for classic American menswear, and a lot of my job is not mucking it up.”