Over at
RatsOnParade's I LOVE J.CREW blog, there is a great post (refer to her "Mickey Drexler on TV: Charlie Rose 2/19/2010" post) about a recent appearance of J.Crew's CEO Mickey Drexler on Charlie Rose (click here for the video & transcript).
The Charlie Rose episode took "a look into the world of fashion" with guests Cathy Horyn (of
The New York Times), Narciso Rodriguez (designer), Roberta Myers (Editor-in-Chief of ELLE), and of course Millard Drexler, (CEO of J.Crew). A lot of great questions were asked of the guests. The following are some responses from Mr. Drexler that I found interesting:
- I live a very narrow life in the world of J.Crew and Madewell.
- I sometimes think we’re in a different business. We design, we develop, we create and we very much evolve. It is kind of sharpening the edge, it’s getting rid of the older, bringing in the new, but it’s a business first and foremost, and in our business it’s a true partnership between design and merchandising as investments in clothes. Because without the profit, the sales, the growth, it’s not a lot of fun, especially if you are a public company.
- And you know, I also look at it, because I’m in a different world. It’s not a design world. I look at the prices and I look at what the real people pay in the world. We’re talking here about, and I didn’t want to be the biggest. I think better is better, not bigger is better.
- Madewell tends to skew younger than J.Crew, but I like timeless because I think a great product will wear well on a young person, and by the way what is going on today is all the young kids are not shopping their mother’s closets any more, they are shopping their father’s closets. So I, you know.
- ...our best-selling men’s shoe, the Macalister -- we lowered it to size five now because we sell one-third to women. Instead of just to men. Our washed shirts, J.Crew, our buttoned down washed shirts, we went to extra small this season.
What are your thoughts on the interview? Were there any pieces of information that you found particularly interesting? :)
The Charlie Rose episode took "a look into the world of fashion" with guests Cathy Horyn (of The New York Times), Narciso Rodriguez (designer), Roberta Myers (Editor-in-Chief of ELLE), and of course Millard Drexler, (CEO of J.Crew). A lot of great questions were asked of the guests. The following are some responses from Mr. Drexler that I found interesting:
OMG. Totally laughing about teens from Madewell not shopping their mom's but their father's closet. That is so 80's/early 90's. Teens wearing their fathers clothes....I just watched an old Cosby episode today and two of the girls dug into Bill's closet. Brought back a lot of personal memories. Mickey...hmmm...not so sure about this one...
ReplyDeleteI'm not that familiar with Madewell, but is J.Crew actually making $$/profit from it?
ReplyDeleteWhy not focus on being a better company (quality, updating IT infrastructure, ...) if your objective is not to get bigger?
I totally get how J.Crew is in the business of making $$ also for their investors but increasing prices of products just because it's selling well is a bad practice (remember the Minnie's?), IMO.
I like that J.Crew's offering more sizes for women from men's line and aren't they always cheaper than women's in the first place? ;-)
I don't see Madewell becoming a household name. J.Crew leaves a lasting impression on most of us (well, used to in my case) because of the timeless style. There's really no transition from Madewell...to becoming an adult. I have never heard of a teen talking about or wearing Madewell. I think Mickey has completely missed the mark on this one.
ReplyDeleteJcrewphd, I totally agree with you,
J.Crew used to make men's shirts in xs, I have several of them. I wondered why they stopped offering that size the last couple of years because I used to be able to pick them up on sale and it was great. The menswear for women look comes back every few years and it's something I like, it goes over well in my office.
ReplyDeleteI have two things from Madewell but I am in Canada so have only been to the store a few times. Still, not much in there to really catch my eye. I bought both items on a single visit and the other times I've visited - nada. The products just don't stand out IMO.
jcrew still makes xs men's shirts...
ReplyDeleteHey! I'm a little behind - thanks for the shout out! I was so excited when I saw that he was on the round table last weekend - thankfully my husband keeps 5 episodes on the TiVo (otherwise I might've missed it!) Charlie Rose always puts me right to sleep. :P Up until the other day I hadn't even seen the original interview you posted from 2008 - very informative! I like the guy more every time I hear him speak. Good head on his shoulders, that one.
ReplyDeleteTastymoog, Mickey says in the interview that they went to xs this season. They used to always have them and then stopped making the mens xs until recently, unless it was on a very select few shirts. Believe me, I checked.
ReplyDeleteI thought that was really interesting. I'd love to see more posts like this as they become available.
ReplyDeleteI like his philosophy of "better is better, not bigger is better." I hope he sticks to it because I don't want J.Crew to be common and available at every mall like the Gap!
ReplyDelete