Pants are getting so saucily low-rise, they reveal a whiff of butt crack. And a cohort of very funny people—including Ivy Wolk, Benito Skinner, and Cole Escola—have become maison darlings. It was only a matter of time before the beloved comedy trio Please Don’t Destroy landed a big-time campaign—and thanks to the good people at J.Crew, that day has finally come.
After meeting at NYU, John Higgins, Ben Marshall, and Martin Herlihy shot to viral fame through a series of pandemic-era TikTok sketches. Not long after, they landed at Saturday Night Live in 2021, injecting the show with a caustic new energy through their surrealist pre-taped bits—many of which starred A-listers like Bad Bunny, Charli XCX, and Timothée Chalamet. Though Higgins and Herlihy have now both left SNL, Please Don’t Destroy remains a going concern—the three spent the back half of the summer touring their live show, before reuniting again for J.Crew’s cameras.
On a steamy Friday last month, Higgins, Marshall, and Herlihy took to the streets of New York in the prep brand’s sharpest fall suits. I stopped by the NoLIta set as Herlihy directed a typically silly, fast-paced video, with the trio running through bit after bit—a James Bond impression one minute, smashing into a display of mannequins the next. Here, I caught up with the boys about their burgeoning modeling careers, all-time style icons, and the unlikely inspiration behind the new campaign.
GQ: How did this campaign come together? Martin Herlihy: It was J.Crew’s idea. They asked if we had any experience or personal knowledge of J.Crew, and we told them that John would go down to J.Crew pretty much every Saturday at SNL and buy something.
John Higgins: I call it retail therapy. Well, I don’t call it that. I think the world calls it that, but I would go there.
Herlihy: That 30 Rock J.Crew was kind of just like a dopamine provider. Higgins: If you were just bummed about your sketch not going or anything, just getting a new J.Crew sweater just really seemed to spin it up. In the campaign, it’s your first day as J.Crew employees.
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