Chances are, designer Frank Muytjens is a big reason why you walked out of the house this morning wearing those selvage jeans and Red Wings. As the creative force behind J.Crew’s rise to its current position as a go-to staple-driven label for men everywhere, Muytjens has seen his fair share of iconic inspiration. Now he and his team are rolling out a new capsule collection focused around the archival pieces they’ve been lusting after for years. Wallace Barnes is the name they’ve given the line. It’s sold exclusively at J.Crew Men’s Shops around the country and jcrew.com, and its first offering is full of hearty, workwear-driven menswear staples that’ll keep you devilishly dapper, and effortlessly layered this fall. We chatted with the man behind it all on the morning of the opening of J.Crew’s new men’s store at the Shops at Columbus Circle.

GQ: Tell us about the decision to launch this capsule, Wallace Barnes:

** Frank Muytjens: **It really started with me and the team loving all the vintage garments we were purchasing for our design archive. We built up a huge collection, and that sort of became the platform for what would become Wallace Barnes. We’re also into like old hardware stores, and dead-stock fabrics that are still packaged up—you know, no wash on it at all, you really have to earn it. Whether it’s like a chambray shirt or selvage jeans. We have this romantic idea of that men’s general store in the dust bowl in the ’20s or ’30s where everything is boarded up but still intact: the sun has been beating through the windows and fading everything gently over time—that’s always driving this collection. We sort of got carried away in the best possible way. We’re very excited.

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GQ: Can you take us through some of the pieces you’re specifically drawn to?

** Frank Muytjens: **We did this fantastic army shirt with big, deep chest pockets, that came from a sample we had lying around. One of the cornerstones of the collection was staying true to the design, and the original details. We tried to match trims and buttons where we could. I grabbed a bunch of stuff from my desk, old thread spools, buttons, stencils, all of this went into the conceptual process. The T-shirts are heathered and overdyed, which give them a lot more patina. I own a few of the beefy jersey knits we did, they’re so rugged, and really fantastic. And outerwear, of course, was a huge focus, and a way to sort of add to the overall attitude. I love the peacoat taken from that traditional WWI model, with the buttons with the anchors and the stars.

GQ: Favorite piece?

** Frank Muytjens: **That parka. It’s just beautiful.

GQ: The price points seem pretty congruent with the regular J.Crew collection—so this is a true capsule in a sense?

** Frank Muytjens: **Yes. It’s a different feel. We’re using the best materials for both Wallace Barnes and J.Crew, but this line has a more boutique feel and we’re only selling it in the Men’s Shops. On a production level, the numbers are still small, which allows us to experiment a little more, to keep things a little more focused. I always like to be a little more understated and see what works, before expanding and adjusting. We have time. I always liked the idea of someone entering a store and seeing something unexpected, something they wanted to take as a keepsake away from the store. That sort of exclusivity is key to the collection, as well. The price points are quite similar, but the branding obviously is different (we love the labels and the marketing), it’s its own little world within the store.