What are your thoughts on the article? Any tidbit you found interesting in the mini-interview with Ms. Lyons?Fab Exclusive! When Jenna J.Crew Realized It Was OK to Wear Red Lipstick and Dorky Glasses
By FabSugar
February 24, 2010
As we continue exploring the depths of J.Crew's Creative Director, Jenna and I discussed one of my favorite topics: the difference between East and West Coast style. I lived in NYC for six years, but am back in California, to stay. Needless to say, my years in New York influence my wardrobe. Than again, so has my active lifestyle in Cali. I mentioned before that Jenna is a born and bred Cali girl, but she is a self-proclaimed New Yorker, after living there for 25 years now.
What do you think are the main differences between East and West Coast style? That to me is easy. I remember when I moved to NY, the first week that I was here, I noticed that guys were looking at me on the street and the idea of beauty here is so diverse — you can be six feet tall and brunette, you can be blond, you can be bald, you can have blue hair, you can be a tomboy, you can be a sex kitten — you can be anything here. There are all different ideals of beauty here and I think being an individual is praised, whereas when I grew up in CA I always felt like an outcast because I didn’t have blond hair and blue eyes, and I didn’t have any boobs. There’s definitely a look that exists in CA — everyone dresses alike — and I think that was really challenging growing up. I didn’t realize how hard it was until I moved here and all of sudden realized it was OK to look different. It’s OK to wear red lipstick and dorky glasses and a lot of people thought that was cute and that wasn’t the case when I was in CA. And the other thing I love: People dress up here. Like, I looove to dress up.
The first year I moved back I would go out in SF and wear my best party clothes and my girlfriends were like, you’re really overdressed and I was like, “Screw it! I love this stuff.” And actually now, I’ve toned it down a bit and gotten more sporty and casual — but that’s just what’s gonna happen. I know. I love a sequin mini skirt, with an oversized sweater, with a sky-high heel, ‘cause you can!
Do you consider yourself a New Yorker? Totally. I mean when I say home, it’s here. My family’s still in CA. I go to visit them, but here is home. My husband and I, in our wedding vows, said we would never leave NY.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Mini-Interview with J.Crew's Jenna Lyons {part II}
There was a mini-interview with J.Crew's Creative Director Jenna Lyons over at FabSugar the other day (refer to yesterday's "J.Crew In The News" post). "Thanks!" to Sami (from Sugar) for sharing the continuation of the interview with FabSugar & Jenna Lyons (click here).
15 comments:
Dear J.Crew Aficionadas & Aficionados: Please feel free (and encouraged) to share your thoughts and opinions. :) However, please note that this is still a personal blog. So comments that are considered inappropriate (e.g. obscene, racist, homophobic, personal attacks, rude, and just plain mean) will be removed.
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I love what she's done with J Crew, but I have to say reading her statements, she talks like a 13-year-old girl...one I wouldn't have gotten along with in 7th grade.
ReplyDeleteSince I'm not the best communicator in the world, I hesitate to comment negatively about the way a person speaks but, I am wondering why it is acceptable to say "like" so much in the interviews. Is this part of a plan to make her more 'real' or less formal during the interview?
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Meredith and IRL. If I were the interviewer I would have been tempted to take them out (just like one would take out "ummm").
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why Jenna Lyons would even comment on people in California when asked about style/fashion specifically? She mentions "not getting noticed in California" and going out in San Francisco but based on her (ignorant, quite honestly) comment, it doesn't seem she's ever walked on the streets of San Francisco and noticed the diversity that makes this city unique.
ReplyDeleteEither way, I hope her next interview will be more tasteful and more fashion oriented.
As an east-coast native who's called northern CA home for the last seven years, I can't believe her statements about the west coast being stylistically homogenous. The first thing I noticed when I moved to CA was that people actually wear colors here. (Lots of them. All at the same time.) And silhouettes they've invented by mixing and matching all kinds of surprising shapes. Jenna obviously had some very insular experience of CA style.
ReplyDeleteJenna was born on the east coast and I recall she grew up in Rancho Palos Verdes, which one could argue was not very diverse 25 years ago (don't kill the messenger! I'm just hypothesizing, as I've only spent limited time in SoCal even though I'm a California native! And 25 years ago I was not even in school!)
ReplyDeleteRe: the boo's on Jenna, I thought the bold italics (asking about Jenna's take on east coast vs west coast style growing up, mentioning SF, using less-than-polished language, etc) = the interviewer, not Jenna.
Yes, be careful here: it is the interviewer that is using "like" and talking about San Francisco. Jenna is from SoCal (very different from San Francisco, which is in NorCal). I've lived in NYC and CA, and she's right on as far as I can tell.
ReplyDeleteI really like her. She has great taste and she's intelligent.
I'm from CA, lived almost equally in SoCal and NorCal, and I did not have the same experience. EVER.
ReplyDeleteWhy did she feel the need to insult her California J Crew fans????
She could have spun her words in a more positive way, and left out those rude comparisons that, frankly, aren't even true.
I've grown up in LA and SD, and I would agree that Socal style is very casual and somewhat "homogenized." I love following fashion, but down here you will definitely get a lot of attention if you wear something "different".
ReplyDeleteAlso, I thought Jenna spoke very well. Maybe some of the readers were confused - the bold is the interviewer's questions, not emphasized sections of Jenna's response, right? So that would mean that comment about San Francisco came from the interviewer, right?
OT, but the website update is taking place - yay, new stuff!
ReplyDeleteThose with an ardent need to impress others will inevitably be disappointed no matter where they live. If you are happy with your style and the way you like it doesn't matter where you are or what anyone else there looks like, you will be happy. Anyway, this is America. Standards for appearance are not that strict ANYWHERE.
ReplyDeleteman what a west coast hater. I do agree with some of her CA statements, but that is definitely describing SoCal, Blonde and Big Boobs. NorCal is SO much more different, how much more diverse can SF get?!
ReplyDeletethis article is basically the same interview she gives all the time. not one word sounds new.
ReplyDeleteI didn't take the comments as CA bashing at all. I have lived in both Nor & So Cal and there is a huge difference between the two. If she grew up in So Cal, she would have definitely felt like an outcast. I haven't lived in NY, but I've visited and it's very different than So Cal. I agree there is more diversity in some ways in Nor Cal, but at the same time in many cases if you're not wearing jeans you're too dressed up. It's very casual in many social situations. Just depends, like, on the group, like you, like, hang around. ;-)
ReplyDeleteAs a pediatrician in her 30s who used to LOVE J.Crew and shop there for all my classic articles of clothing, not minding the higher prices, I skimmed the article wanting to know who was responsible for the makeover of Jcrew into a more expensive but less quality store, one that was making me spend more money to look like my teenage patients, for goodness sakes, where I would find less classics and more girly and silly items like those I would find in a place like forever 21. Ok, that was a bit harsh, but sequins and bows and baubles and bits--I would not mind if there were classics with some pieces that had originality and flair, but it seems as if ALL the pieces have been consumed with these flowers and bows, etc., and the prices have been hiked up to a ridiculous extent. As such, I have to confess I was already pretty biased when I skimmed the article. So when i read it, i was further disappointed in jenna lyons, especially since she did not grow up in northern california. i might have given her some sympathy if she had mentioned that she had grown up in so cal, but i have to also point out that no woman who seriously lacks self-esteem would be able to grow up and go to new york city and make it and get a million dollar bonus or whatever she got for making j.crew the bow/sequin/shiny/overpriced place that it is now. i am sorry if that sounds mean, but i used to love j.crew, shopped there all the time, and every catalog just makes me sadder and more desperate for it go back to what it used to be.
ReplyDeleteanyway, kudos to her for being so successful. as a woman, i sincerely mean that. but i do wish that jcrew could go back to being more of a focus on the classics with less baubles. j crew is no longer my favorite, except for a few bits and pieces, like the jackie cardigan. at least they still have that. they already did away with the perfect fit tank (they used to call it the favorite tank, but now that's something else).
ok, back to the hospital....