J.Crew In The News

There is a mini-interview with J.Crew's Creative Director Jenna Lyons over at FabSugar (click here).

Fab Exclusive! Fab Meets J.Crew's Jenna — Jenna's Faves!
By FabSugar
February 23, 2010

One of my New York Fashion Week highlights was meeting J.Crew's Creative Director Jenna Lyons. As you know, I am officially J.Crazy — Fab's been a wearer since high school. But for the past several years and thanks to fellow wearer First Lady Michelle Obama, J.Crew has gained serious momentum. This is largely due to the company's Cali-born 6-foot-tall Jenna (pictured here, with a fan).

Two tall California girls chatting away in the corner in the AMEX Skybox; what did they talk about? Let's start with the fun stuff: Jenna's faves. Read on to hear about Jenna's favorite designers, bands, food, and inspiring hobbies.

Favorite designers? Marni, Phillip Lim, Derek Lam (I went to school with him), vintage, what Pheobe Philo is doing with Celine is a new favorite. I'm all about old school preppy – socks, navy blazer, jeans.

Favorite bands? Oooh, that’s a good one. I have an insane girl crush on Alison Mosshart right now from The Kills, I’m like obsessed with her. I have like pictures of her . . . Do you know Nouvelle Vague? I’m a total Depeche Mode junkie and old Killing Joke and The Smiths. It’s funny because I have a little boy, and when he was young we used to play rock n' roll a lot — like hard rock, everything from Nirvana to Killing Joke, and now if I put on anything too soft he goes, "No, Mommy. I like rock and roll." I was like, awesome. Thank God.

Favorite foods? My husband has a smoker . . . we literally have a smoker the size of a refrigerator, and he smokes meat like it’s nobody’s business. He makes a pulled pork that could make you cry.

What are some of your other hobbies — where you get inspiration from or where you like to escape to? I had a child three years ago and things have changed dramatically. Interiors, we’re constantly changing our house, it’s sort of an obsession of mine. I also do stuff for friends a lot, that’s something I get a huge kick out of. I spend a lot of time at home, with my husband, making, you know, crazy stuff — a tomato tart and sharing it with our kid. I’m like the straighten up girl or the do the dishes girl. But when you have a kid it’s fun to be able to share the whole process with him, and he loves to pretend he’s cooking with daddy, and we all do it together, and that’s so fun. I love that part. There’s something amazing about making something beautiful that also tastes incredible.

You mentioned interiors, and I know you are deeply involved in store design, too. Totally. We are working on a wedding atelier uptown; we've been designing the store for the past few years. I'm going to Paris in a few weeks hoping to score some vintage picture frames. Whatever I can't do in our house, we do in the J.Crew stores (she laughs). Fashion and interiors are so connected — textiles, mixing the old and the new.

Jenna Lyons is absolutely gorgeous. She really is. But, wow! I mean that outfit of hers. She's got the layering thing down, that is for sure. But the vest ...dayum girl! How about a nice fitted black jacket instead? Just a friendly suggestion. :)

Also, "thanks!" to Crewstyle who let us know the following news from Marketwire (click here to read the article in its entirety). There is also another article over at NBC New York's The Thread (click here).

Polyvore Gets New Chief Exec from Google, J. Crew
By Kelly O'Reilly
February 23, 2010

Polyvore, the somewhat ambiguously defined fashion collage site has appointed as their new CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, J.Crew board member and former Google exec.

Polyvore has seemed to grow exclusively by word of mouth, turning home bloggers and cubicle-dwellers into little fashion editors. The site has earned enough chops to host design contests with houses as prestigious as Yves Saint Laurent and Burberry, and now boasts 6 million unique visitors per day.

Cassidy succeeds the site's founder, Pasha Sadri, who will remain with the company in a development capacity, and has anticipated possible vehicles of improvement that include expansion into additional genres such as interior design, mobile capabilities and improved user experience. It's pretty remarkable the breadth and depth of images and information available through Polyvore, and we're constantly wondering, frankly, how they wrangle their inventory on a legal basis.

Anyhow, we feel justified in our somewhat adolescent tendecies toward creating collages now that they're beefing up the board with some big-time honchos -- should be interesting to see what comes of the new appointment.

Polyvore is the best! It is so addictive. Of course, I have to mention that there is a kick *ss group of JCAs over at Polyvore... the {amazing} J.Crew Aficionadas Group. These JCAs come up with *the best* J.Crew outfits. I mean, I look to them for outfit inspiration more than I do J.Crew's catalogs & mannequins (with their usual over the top styling). :)

What are your thoughts on either article? Are you a fan of Polyvore? (Honestly, who isn't? It's such a fun site.) Any tidbit you found interesting in the mini-interview with Ms. Lyons? (What about that outfit of hers... amiright?) :)