Wednesday, June 8, 2011

J.Crew's Jenna Lyons {the story}

"Thanks!" to Gem Twin (in this post) who shared an article about Jenna Lyons over at the Industrie (click here to read in its entirety):
The Creative Establishment: Jenna Lyons
The designer driving the big brand that’s making America dress better

By Erik Torstensson
Portrait by Tom Allen
February 6, 2011

There are plenty of high street brands trying to persuade us that they’re design-led these days. But J.Crew is the only chain whose aesthetic is deemed high-end enough by Net-a-Porter to be worthy of inclusion on its list of designer names. It’s a dramatic turnaround for a company that 10 years ago was saddled with a reputation for being an unremarkable catalogue brand. Jenna Lyons remembers the bad old days, having joined J.Crew in 1990 as a lowly design assistant on men’s knitwear. ‘I’ve worked for every single department,’ she says. ‘I’ve done swim. I’ve done lingerie. Sweaters. Shoes. Sunglasses. Bags. I’ve been involved in every aspect of the business.’ It was the label’s egalitarian affordability that had attracted her in the first place, but the creative aspect of her work suffered after a private equity firm took over in 1997 and commerciality became the only priority. ‘When I started I really loved being here but slowly things went downhill. I was loyal and I wanted it to get better. I didn’t realise how bad it actually was until Mickey arrived.’

Mickey Drexler came in from Gap as J.Crew’s CEO in 2003 and quickly recognised the talent the Parsons-trained designer, who was in heading up womenswear at the time. ‘Mickey went through the rail and asked my opinion on the collection. He held up a pair of stretch pants: “What do you think of this?” I said, “I don’t really like it, but I think it’ll make a lot of money.” And he said, “Throw it on the floor.” Next. “What’s this?” “It’s a poodle sweater that we’ve been running.” “What do you think of it?” “I hate it with all of my life… but it’s a million-dollar piece.” “Throw it on the floor.” At the end of the meeting, half the line was on the floor.’ This little bonfire of the banalities cleared the way for a new-look J.Crew. ‘We pulled a team together, did some sketches, went vintage shopping and got on a plane to Hong Kong to redo the line all over again!’

Even before Lyons was invited to give her creativity free rein, one factor that stood in J. Crew’s favour was its humble mail-order roots: this meant its distribution structure was already in place as the rest of the high street rushed to migrate online. Now Lyons is very much the face of the brand on the J.Crew site, with her ‘Jenna’s Picks’ page guiding the customer through how to assemble a look that she would wear herself. Not that J.Crew’s retail operation has eclipsed the importance of its catalogue, whose reach remains immense: published 14 times a year under Lyons’s supervision, three million issues are mailed out each month. ‘We see a dramatic uptake in sales when the catalogue goes out. It’s a sort of a magazine for the customer; it allows us to reinvent J.Crew every month. That’s where the creativity and the fun comes in because so few brands can do this. I mean, how many brands get to do five women’s photoshoot stories without any advertising?’

She also oversees the interiors of its 229 stores, all within the US; outside of Net-a-Porter, J.Crew’s reach is not yet international, although that may change next year. She’s careful not to grow the brand too quickly, focusing on taking it up-market before breaking it in new markets. She launched the pricier J.Crew Collection in 2007, a line that has included such artisanal pieces as a $2,000 dress decorated with hand-cut sequins in a limited edition of eight. Then there’s the innovative J.Crew ads in which models are shown with products from other brands too (their websites are even generously included); and the Liquor Store, a J.Crew menswear flagship converted from an old Tribeca off-licence, more unique concept store than identikit chain. All in the name of making J.Crew creatively credible while keeping its appeal as broad (and its prices as low) as possible. ‘I want my mum to be able to wear the clothes. I want to be able to wear the clothes and I want the girls from Harper’s Bazaar to wear them. How you do that? It’s hard.’ Hard maybe, but Lyons appears to be succeeding.
You have to give Jenna Lyons credit: she is pretty darn impressive! Also, I had no idea how many catalogs they send out each month!?! I love the quote "magazine for the customer". It really is for me!

What are your thoughts on the article? Was there any piece shared that you found particularly interesting? If so, please share! :)

12 comments:

  1. Afraid to grow the brand too quickly? Come on already... it's about time they opened that Vancouver store! I guarantee it would be swarming with shoppers, just like the new Anthro store is!

    Otherwise, that is a great photo of Jenna!

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  2. Great article BUT i think the writer messed a few things up:

    1. Texas Pacific Group which bought the company in 1997 and supposedly caused: " the creative aspect of her work suffered after a private equity firm took over in 1997 and commerciality became the only priority."
    ------ thats the same company that recruited Mickey Drexler so obvi they werent all wrong...

    2. TPG is also the same company that just took J Crew private... ie they own J Crew now... The article makes it sound like shes bad mouthing them... gutsy to bite the hand that feeds you?

    3. Collection has been around since the 90s when the previous owner Emily Cinader Woods wanted to make timeless high end clothes that her Upper East Side friends would wear. Unlike last year's $650 sequin pants which started to fall apart before they were even worn, the Collection pieces i have from the 90s havent aged a day. I wish j crew would bring back the old quality.

    Whoops! Didnt realize this was going to read more like a "looking to vent"!! All that said obvi i love j crew.

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  3. It's a good think Lyons wants her mother to be able to wear the J Crew clothes! That will (hopefully) prevent the clothing from becoming all-Collection. I'm presuming her mother doesn't wear denim jumpsuits and feathered minis.

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  4. "Taking it up-market" and "breaking into new markets." meh. Not impressed on what they have done thus far, as we all know, quality isn't there. They need to focus on utilitarian clothing again (haha) that is, clothes that are well made and made to last. Traditional, can you say.

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  5. I'm always impressed with what Jenna Lyons has accomplished in her career. It's especially impressive because she has stayed with the same company for so long and not progressed by taking outside promotions, which is often the case in the modern corporate environment. J.Crew certainly has a broad range of appeal. Whenever I'm in the stores there is a wide variety of ages in there and although I recognize this blog is just a tiny window into the demographic of the J.Crew shopper, there are commenters across the ages and often raving about (or panning) the same items.

    Just one thing in the article that I though may be incorrect, "hand-cut sequins". I think they must mean hand-applied. What on earth would be the advantage of hand-cut sequins? I think they would probably be much nicer and consistent if cut by a machine and can't imagine someone stamping out individual sequins.

    Thank you for sharing the article gem twin.

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  6. xoxo, interesting, I missed the part about "hand cut sequins". I did a Google search and found a Vogue article about a Givenchy couture gown with "hand-dyed and hand-cut sequins". I don't know if this is couture snobbery (hand-cut is necessarily superior to machine-cut) or if they needed novel or varying shapes which could only be cut by hand. I just hope that the extra cost wasn't distributed among the other J Crew garments, including the far more humble ones I've been buying.

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  7. tamara, there are many skilled artisans working for couture and I could see hand cutting if unique shapes are used in a garment. For some reason it just made me think "sweatshop" and the image was not pretty.

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  8. xoxo, I hear you. I'm remembering that fantastic article you posted a link to about how "Made in Italy" isn't exactly what most people (including myself, before I read the article) think.

    Maybe I should go into the sequin-making business. I didn't know it was such a big deal! :)

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  9. You know, if they would just make well made clothing,etc with beautiful materials, the Crewlade would make itself. As it is, we get monthly infusions of different flavors of Jenna-Ade, but less and less of what would make us more than happy to part with our money.. I simply want nice clothing to buy. That would mean a great deal more to me than the ever present "industry darling" copy from the JC PR machine. The holes in my tees and sweaters tell a completely different tale...

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  10. ROFL @ poodle sweater! I know exactly what she's referring to, lol.

    I do like and respect that she's worked in every department at one time or another. One of my biggest pet peeves is people who try to manage others who do a job they really don't know anything about.

    Very interesting read, thanks for sharing!

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  11. Were poodles between pineapples and zebras? Or after zebras? :)

    I predict next year's hot plant/animal motif will be............. raccoons.

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