J.Crew began in 1947 as Popular Merchandise, Inc., a company started by Mitchell Cinader and Saul Charles that sold inexpensive women's clothing through in-home parties rather than stores. The first J.Crew mail-order catalog went out in January 1983, and the company formally adopted the J.Crew Group name in 1989, retiring the decades-old Popular Merchandise title. Emily Cinader, from the founding family, joined after college and became the person most credited with shaping the specific J.Crew look that drove the brand's rapid growth through the 1980s.