Rowing Blazers and J. Crew have teamed up for an extremely limited edition collaboration celebrating one of our core products: the rugby shirt. Available in three colorways, the shirts feature hand-sewn twill tape patches emblazoned with the phrase: WITH A FINE DISREGARD FOR THE RULES. We only made 200, so get 'em before they're gone.
Shop the collection here.
“Rowing Blazers is all about being true to history, but injecting a sense of humor and irreverence, so I was thrilled to partner with J.Crew. I've been wearing these rugbys since I was a kid.”
“I’m an archaeologist, and my fascination with the history of objects is a big part of Rowing Blazers. I did a Ph.D. at Oxford, so research and uncovering quirky stories, myths and traditions comes pretty naturally. So it was a lot of fun combing through J.Crew’s 1980’s catalogs. I also went back to the origin of the rugby shirt, and of the sport itself.”
“According to legend, the sport originated at Rugby School in England during a game of soccer. One of the boys caught the ball and ran to the opposing goal, which was, of course, against the rules. A plaque at Rugby School now commemorates ‘the exploit of William Webb Ellis, who with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time first took the ball in his arms and ran with it.”
“I love that phrase, ‘with a fine disregard for the rules.’ I think that philosophy has a place in many aspects of modern life. How you dress. How you dance. What fork you use. More importantly, without ‘a fine disregard for the rules,’ we probably wouldn't have things like...America, modern art, hip-hop…and the rugby shirt.”
Jack Carlson, Rowing Blazers founder
Click here to shop the collaboration now!
Video and photography by Bryan Derballa for J.Crew