J.Crew and the American Museum of Natural History are back together. The American retailer and the New York institution have released a second limited-edition capsule collection — a small, themed range of clothing and accessories — timed for the back-to-school shopping season. Their first collaboration landed in 2015. WWD

The collection draws on the museum's best-known exhibitions, from dinosaur fossils to insect species. Pieces span children's and adults' lines. For kids, there are graphic T-shirts, a special-edition Rollneck sweater, jewellery, and dinosaur slippers. Adults get a curated assortment of museum-inspired items, including a vintage-wash graphic T-shirt at $65, a medium Seaport tote bag, an embroidered baseball cap, and an English silk critter tie printed with a blue Tyrannosaurus rex. A boys' "don't bug me" T-shirt rounds out the children's offering. Prices across the capsule run from $32.50 to $148. WWD

Julia Collier, J.Crew's chief marketing officer, pointed to the dinosaur intarsia Rollneck — a knit sweater with a pattern knitted in rather than printed on top — as the piece at the centre of the collaboration. She described it as a reimagining of one of J.Crew's signature children's silhouettes, according to WWD.

The collection launched on a Thursday on jcrew.com and at select J.Crew stores. WWD

For a museum-shop collaboration, the breadth is notable: ties and tote bags alongside slippers and children's jewellery, all under one natural-history umbrella. The partnership also gives J.Crew a fresh hook for the back-to-school period, one of retail's most competitive windows, when parents and students are shopping for clothing and accessories for the new academic year.

Eleven years separated the two collaborations. The first, in 2015, tested whether museum-branded apparel could move beyond the gift-shop rail and into a fashion retailer's regular assortment. The second batch suggests the concept held.