Wednesday, April 17, 2013

J.Crew's Jenna Lyons & the Cult of J.Crew

"Thanks!" to so many of you, including Nicole, Ji (in this post), ReaganFlowers & ruffles (in this post), as well as Cole of Fast Company, who shared the following great article from Fast Company about J.Crew's Jenna Lyons. Cole also shares:
 "...Fast Company's exclusive with J.Crew's president Jenna Lyons, live on Fast Company.com on Monday, April  15, on newsstands Tuesday, April 23. Our May cover feature explores how Jenna Lyons has taken J.Crew from ugly ducking to fashion arbiter – and counts Anna Wintour and Michelle Obama as die hard fans. Learn from the creatives at J.Crew (Jenna, Mickey Drexler, ) how collaboration, creativity and innovation has shaped this brand on fire..."
To read the article in its entirety, click HERE. To view the slideshow of Jenna's office {swoon}, click HERE. The following are just a few portions of the detailed and lengthy article (that is definitely worth reading!):
How Jenna Lyons Transformed J.Crew Into A Cult Brand
See how Jenna Lyons has taken J.Crew from ugly duckling to fashion arbiter.

By Danielle Sacks
April 15, 2013

  • After graduating from Parsons in 1990, the then 21-year-old started as an "assistant to an assistant to someone else's assistant," as she puts it, designing the company's old-world men's rugby shirts.
  • Todd Snyder, Drexler's former head of men's wear at Gap, advised him to seek out Lyons, at the time J.Crew's vice president of women's design, likening her to Calvin Klein in the early days. "Jenna was a great designer, she looks like a model, and then she talks like the best salesperson you ever met," says Snyder. "I think she's the most talented person he's ever worked with in design."
  • Their partnership would mark the end of the days when J.Crew's product design was dictated by corporate strategy. Together, they would make and sell only what they loved. The love would not be unconditional; they would adjust their product line always, trying new ideas, assessing, and quickly getting rid of anything that didn't work. Under Drexler and Lyons, J.Crew would become a company of constant and freewheeling experimentation, iteration, adaptation.
  • J.Crew employees reveal themselves by the nakedness of their ankles. It's as if the company's uniform, ambiently dictated by Lyons, is enforced only from the knees down. Bare ankles, for men and women alike ...
  • Lyons believed that to create a coherent brand and drive the business forward, every piece of the creative organization--from retail to catalog to web--had to be unified.
  • In 2010, her lobbying paid off. J.Crew's president, according to the official announcement, stepped down "to spend more time with her children," and Drexler gave the title to Lyons. "It was literally a two-second conversation," says Lyons. "He pulled me into a room and said, 'So, just want to let you know you're the president.' I was like, uh, okay. Alrighty then. Then I put my head down on the table, took 10 deep breaths, sat back up and was like, 'Okay, do I need to do anything different?' And he was like, 'No, just keep doing what you're doing.' I'm like, 'Okay,' and we walked out of the room. That was it."
  • "It's hard when the finance team is used to putting a light fixture in the store that costs $2,000 and I'm like, 'Well, I want an $8,000 fixture,'" says Lyons. "You have to get people to understand why having that Serge Mouille light fixture is better, because it's beautiful and people will know something's different. Maybe when you look at that $200 cashmere sweater, you'll feel like, 'Oh, yeah, look at the store, it's so beautiful. This $200 sweater is a steal.'"
  • More recently, Lyons worked a bold overhaul of the catalogs. With 40 million copies distributed every year, the catalogs are at the root of J.Crew's business and constitute some of the brand's most precious real estate. Yet for years, the catalog lineup was dictated by sales from the year before. Pictures of each item ran alongside clunky color swatches and dense text; perhaps only 2 out of 100 pages were devoted to material that might be called editorial. The reimagined catalog supports the idea of J.Crew as tastemaker, with multipage stories packaged around trends, such as "The Italian Shoe Collection: Designed in New York. Made in Italy" for some fancy leather flats. Today, the J.Crew Style Guide--its new name--and its website have more of the feel of a fashion magazine.
  • When I get home, I dig up the piece: "Has J.Crew finally found a rival? Gap makes big comeback." It is the worst kind of story for J.Crew, lumping it in with Drexler's ex, a name that is practically forbidden in the office.
  • "Mickey wants to be so cool so bad," says the former employee. "Jenna is confident and cool and human and comfortable with herself and gives him the credibility he needs to be on fire. And he has her back in a way no one else can." I ask Lyons what everyone in the business wonders: When will she leave J.Crew to start her own line? She says it's not in the cards, at least for now. As she has said, she already is building her own collection, and she wouldn't be able to do so on her own. Her former colleague Todd Snyder argues that no designer in Lyons's shoes would ever have a reason to leave. "Mickey has given her enough runway so she can really make of it what she wants," he says. "They should just call it Jenna Crew."
I am a little bummed out that the article mentions a few J.Crew-fanatic blogs (congrats to those who got mentioned!) and the JCrew Aficionada blog was omitted. Especially since the magazine reached out to me (to let me know about this article to feature on this very blog!) Not the first time this has happened (and won't be the last). ;)

As for the article itself, it was a good, in-depth, look at J.Crew. Although many JCAs are aware of Jenna's back story and ascension to the executive ranks of J.Crew, it is always fascinating to read it again.

So many interesting tidbits that can be read between the lines too! First, the former J.Crew president who "stepped down" was Tracy Gardner (president from 2004 to 2010). This is just speculation (and speculation only), but many thought that she might have been asked to leave so Jenna could take her place. The irony is that Tracey became an adviser to the Gap (yup, that Gap!) last year (refer here).

Second, I find it interesting that Jenna is creating her own collection. We all saw the J.Crew custom designed dress of Jenna's own design for the Vanity Fair Oscar party (click here). Does this mean Jenna will have her own capsule line within the brand?

Did you enjoy the article? Any points you thought were particularly interesting? :)

36 comments:

  1. I know I'm in the general minority but I don't think Jenna Lyons has made J Crew more cool. I think she has increased J Crew's exposure to different fashion outlets that may have dismissed the brand in the past but otherwise I can't say that I am entirely happy with all the changes she has brought. My favorite collections fall mainly in the pre-Jenna period when it seems quality was prioritized higher than the cool factor. I was a customer before Jenna and will probably be a customer after Jenna but maybe J Crew needs to stop making it about her and focus on what made people love the brand in the first place. I've seen some positive changes lately and I hope it continues. I also have an unreasonable annoyance with those glasses on the models in the catalogs.

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    1. Couldn't agree with you more that the cool factor should not be prioritized over quality. I have jackets that are almost ten years old from J.Crew, that are holding up better than the ones I purchased this year (and wore once!).

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    2. Agreed Alexis. I don't only want the cool factor. I want the quality and timelessness too. I was wearing J.Crew before all the cool kids thought it was cool and will probably stille be wearing it long after the cool kids think it's passé. Plus if you edited your closet well, there are older JC pieces that work so well today's offerings. JC needs to put a little more focus on their base customer and stop trying to push us off on the Crewlet.

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  2. eyelet sweatshirt is on sale for $69.99 in case anyone is interested

    http://www.jcrew.com/womens_category/knitstees/longsleevetees/PRDOVR~44933/99103004994/ENE~1+2+3+22+4294967294+20~~~0~15~all~mode+matchallany~~~~~eyelet%20sweatshirt/44933.jsp

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  3. 4/17 markdowns including:

    * Bazaar print silk popover 129.99 - review
    * Collection skunks silk blouse - on Lam in Loubouts
    * Coral tweed blazer 139.99
    * Scattered dot dress 119.99 - review
    * Spearmint tweed jacket 59.99 (2nd cut)

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  4. I thought Mickey Drexler's comment about how customers love scarcity was interesting.

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    1. Yeah- I kind of get what he is saying, but at the same time, I always see those "scarce" items in the sale section. (Like the python mini Eddie bag.)

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    2. I wasn't sure if he was talking about those exclusive only-made-25-of-them items, or if this theory applied to new rollouts when they seemingly sell out of something new and exciting right away (then stock is fine in a few weeks) or the "rare" pop-backs when there is just-one-left-omg lol! I have to believe that their online sale strategy uses a scarcity tactic :)

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    3. Agreed Cate. I think that they play the scarcity game pretty well.

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    4. I try not to play that game. If I love it, I love it. If I don't, it's not stepping foot in my closet even if they made 1 of it in pure gold. I wish they would quit with their games though. Last year I bought one dress five times over (yes 5!) just to get it at the lowest price and ended up paying about 20% of the original price. Good thing three SAs at my local B&M are all my size. They love when I return stuff they want.

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  5. I'm over the Jenna factor. She is obviously very talented, but I worry that J.Crew is putting too much emphasis on her and her style. I think they should expand their view a bit and find inspiration in other sources. I thought that dress that she wore for the oscar party was terrible and those glasses are the worst. She is so pretty and those glasses are such a distraction. I bet her collection will not appeal to the average J.Crew customer and will also be very expensive.

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    1. Allyson: I also think that all this Jenna-centric-love can be a bit dangerous for J.Crew. What happens if she does decide to leave?

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    2. I know!! They have put a lot of eggs in the Jenna basket!!

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  6. Oh, dear. The writer lost me at J.Crew's "preppy Nantucket ancestry." The company began as part of a larger catalog company, the Popular Club Plan of Garfield, New Jersey. I hope wherever Emily (Cinader) Woods may be, she's laughing.

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  7. I agree with many of you, and many of the people who have interviewed Jenna, that she seems like a nice, genuine person. I bet she'd be fun to hang out with. That's separate from how well I think she runs J. Crew. We vote with our feet and I know I'm not the only one that hasn't bought much from J. Crew in the past few years. Maybe Jenna is designing her fantasy closet, and even though I might think some of the pieces are pretty, they don't fit into my life and I can't afford them. Combine that with the fact that almost every hemline has risen to club wear territory and I have to take my shopping dollars elsewhere. The more I read, the more I believe Jenna is responsible for this. Maybe it's time she left J. Crew and started that line of hers.

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    1. I think you are right- Jenna has shifted the company over the years and J.Crew definitely tries to go above their image. Sometimes it works, but I feel like the things that sell out quickly in my store are the "classics with a twists" not the "trendy and now".

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    2. I agree, especially regarding the hemlines. I am not especially modest, but at 5'9 I can't wear most of the dresses or skirts. It's a bummer. All the "Collection" pieces are so outrageously priced I wonder who is actually buying them.

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  8. Alexis, fantastic summary of that crazy-long article, thank you!

    J. Crew with Jenna at the helm has mostly become a brand for the life I WISH I had vs. the life I REALLY have ... too expensive, precious, and short-hemmed (sorry that's not a word)!

    But I still love everything about it and find her fascinating.

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    1. That is great- about the brand promoting the life wished and really had. I think its so true for so many of us. I feel the same way whenever I browse through an Ethan Allen/ Pottery Barn/ Restoration Hardware catalog. Then I look up at my real house and think, not even close! ;)

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    2. That's a great description of how I feel about J. Crew too. Thankfully they still produce some non-aspirational clothing so I can still shop there. I think Jenna seems great too.

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    3. lol. Sadly I have fallen into that trap and bought some preciousness for the life that I wish I had. One or two peices still remain unworn. At least I got them on sale. lol.

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  9. It's always fun to read these behind-the-scenes pieces. I don't know that I'd notice a store having an $8K light fixture vs. a $2K one, but I do think that J.Crew's renovations have been expertly done and it does make me feel happier shopping there. Their Flatiron store in particular is truly gorgeous!

    And I'm so bummed that JCA wasn't mentioned directly. How eye-rollingly gauche to reach out and ask for a mention on the blog without the courtesy to mention it in the article. Come on Fast Company and J.Crew, surely you know better.

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    1. LOL! I thought the same about the light fixtures- I could not imagine spending $8000 for a light fixture, let alone recognizing one in a store. ;)

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  10. Thanks for the summary, Alexis! I was also surprised not to see JCA mentioned in the article, which I very much enjoyed. My thoughts:

    -I really do love reading about Jenna Lyons and I admire the heck out of her style and her career. The part about how skilled she is re: managing "creatives" was fascinating and I do think that her relatability as it comes across in articles and interviews is genuine.

    -The bit about the bare ankles produced a major eyeroll. I don't want a uniform, and even if I did it wouldn't exclusively include cropped pants and bare ankles.

    -I laughed when Jenna commented on Mickey's "bullsh*tdar". They really do have a terrific working relationship.

    -Making the monthly catalogs/style guides more like fashion magazine editorials is exactly why I've lost interest in them. I read fashion mags for the articles and skim the editorials since the articles usually contain really interesting info and the editorials are just models jumping or doing the "broken doll" in clothes I can't afford.

    -I wish all retailers cared so much about the quality of the interiors in their stores. Living in the sticks and having to do most of my shopping online really makes me miss shopping in beautiful spaces and it *does* make a difference in how much I spend.

    -I want her pink desk.

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    1. Whitney: So happy you brought up the catalogs! When J.Crew changed to format to more editorial is when I started losing interest in the outfits (as a whole) and having to look at pieces (individually). Where as before, I would want to recreate an entire outfit because it looked awesome (and wearable).

      I think J.Crew recognizes that because they started to show more reasonable outfits in their catalogs as of lately.

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  11. Pre-Jenna-being-in-charge J.Crew was much better, in my opinion. I have bought a tiny fraction in the last few years than I did before. Quality is low, and I can find similar pieces at other retailers for much less.

    J.Crew used to have more unique pieces (unique like the beautifully detailed jackets, not unique like crazy skunk print skirts and colorblocked capri pants) and now it is more just like everyone else. Perhaps it is because everyone knocks off J.Crew.

    Knockoffs are knockoffs, and usually they are crap, but when they are the same quality as the real thing, there is no incentive to buy the real thing. You can walk into TJ Maxx and find dupes of $120 J.Crew items for $19.99 with similar quality. I am just really over what they are doing the last few years, and have only bought the truly beautiful standout pieces that will stand the test of time. It makes me sad, but I think Jenna has alot to do with my alienation from the brand.

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  12. With regard to our everyday (clothing) lives vs. our aspirational (clothing) lives, I feel like I do pretty well at JC for the everyday stuff. Tippi's, #2's, Valentina's and Macalister wedges are meaningful staples for me. I bet the bulk of JC's revenue comes from that kind of item (does anyone know the detail on their revenue?).

    Where I part ways with the Jenna approach is that their definition of "cool" is so limited and overused. If you ignore their hype and look only at bulk of their collection offerings, then its all about leopard, snakeskin and sequins. I don't think those are cool, imaginative or distinctive. I don't see fashionable women wearing that stuff no matter what city I'm in. And it is SO repetitive and boring.

    The JC characteristics that truly inspire and get me to spend more include the prints (yay hummingbird), the excellent swimwear, and the color palette. Those are what set the women's offerings apart from other retailers.

    Interesting item in the article that Jenna "edits" Mickey. If that's true, then she needs to do much more editing. We don't need to see dozens of capri pants at any given time (even if naked ankles are all the rage in the JC office). A little more scarcity please!

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    1. Agreed. The prints & the spot on color choices are what draw me in to buy, along with staple items. Other than that, I don't see J. Crew as necessarily "trendy."

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  13. Not that they bother to send me the catalog(though I spend thousands at the store), but I truly dislike the "style guides".

    Didn't some alert JCA'er note recently that JC is going to scale back their catalogs in favor of different modes of advertising? Very smart.

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  14. It's nice to hear about someone who started at the bottom of a company and worked their way to the top! Sometimes it's hard to believe that ever happens anymore. On a side note, personally I don't "get" the Gap comparisons. It seems that J Crew and Gap are aimed at two completely different audiences and price levels. Other than the fact that Mickey Drexler has led both companies, the comparisons stop there. One of the things I feel both Lyons and Drexler have done is stepped up the brand to the next level--where years ago they may have been compared to LL Bean and Gap, now they are more in line with stores like Anthro and Club Monaco.

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  15. I blame the sad state of quality at J.Crew for the recent uptick in my Ebay trolling. I'm now more obsessed in finding "j.crew of yore" items that I missed out on when I was a poor college student. I love about half of their new stuff and do buy it but then return about half of that for quality issues. So about a quarter of their new stuff makes it into my closet. And yes, it is usually the classic with a twist items since most of their collection pieces have no place in my life.

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    1. PS: I had never really tought of myself as part of a cult but I see it now. lol

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  16. Jenna Lyons named one of Times most influential people of 2013! Congrats Jenna!

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