Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Jenna Puts the J in J.Crew

"Thanks!" to Jessica, as well as OperaRach (in this post), who shared the following article from NY Mag (click here to read in its entirety). There are four pages to the article, so just a bit is re-posted here:
The J in J.Crew: How Jenna Lyons became the most unlikely of tastemakers (a word she detests)
By Molly Young
August 14, 2011

Jenna Lyons is physically demonstrative. If the creative director and president of J.Crew is baffled by a suggestion, she’ll make a baffled face. If she is shocked by the price of a Hans Wegner chair, she’ll pantomime a backward stagger. When a knit dress strikes her as drab, she’ll enunciate the word argh. Lyons is discerning, but she’s also six-foot-five in heels, and the fact that there’s an awful lot of her means that even the subtlest expressions come across loud and clear. ...

At another meeting, this one for the forthcoming fall catalogue for adults, Lyons sits two chairs to the left of her boss, wearing cream-colored jeans and a blue seersucker men’s shirt unbuttoned to several inches below her sternum. Drexler eyes his second-in-command between bites of a toasted bialy, then poses a question to the group of twenty executives: “How do we get more women to wear men’s shirts, like Jenna is wearing?”

“Show ’em a picture of Jenna,” someone says. This is a joke, but it’s also the right answer, and it hints at the power that Lyons has come to wield over the aspirations of young and youngish women. (A second hint: “Jenna Lyons girl crush” brings up half a million Google hits.) “Everyone from industry professionals to the younger generation of bloggers is crazy about her sense of style,” says Nina Garcia, the fashion director at Marie Claire. “Jenna has mastered the art of the high-low mix.”

The first thing you notice about Lyons—after her height—is that she doesn’t look much like anyone else in fashion. She has an emphatic jaw, flower-bud mouth, and warm eyes. Unlike many of the J.Crew employees’ dark tans, hers looks incidental, not cosmetic, and the overall effect is of a woman who knows the might of her presence and handles it carefully. This is an honest stance but also a complicated one, as I learn when Lyons casually mentions that all her teeth are fake. “I’m not at all shy about it,” she says of a genetic disease called incontinentia pigmenti. “I have quite a few scars on my skin, my teeth are conical”—hence the dentures—“and I have huge bald spots on my hair that are mostly closed up, but they’re still there.”

...Where feathers and sequins meet J.Crew is largely a matter of styling, and though Lyons dislikes the word preppy, her choices always invoke the core prep values of ease, cleanliness, and conservatism. If her company has always prized a kind of sartorial comfort—nothing too tight, too short, too synthetic—then Lyons, with her bare face and occasional bralessness, is what happens when comfort meets chic. ...
Whoever is the publicist for the executives at J.Crew, bravo! S/he needs to get a raise. The executive creative team & Mickey Drexler seem to get such great coverage in the media. And it does feel like they are everywhere.

As for the article itself, I liked it. By now, it feels like we know who Jenna is. But reading her quotes, especially about her scars and bald spots, makes her all the more sweet to me.

So I read with great interest the part of the article that said: "...now comes out fourteen times a year to the ardent scrutiny of blogs like...". I excitedly thought to myself, "Will the JCrew Aficionada blog be mentioned? A little recognition for this blog and the great community behind it?" Well... Nope. Nothing. {sigh} It's sad enough J.Crew ignores this blog, but et tu, Molly from NY Mag? :( On a happier note, congrats to RatsOnParade who did get mentioned! :)

What are your thoughts on the article? Any piece you found particularly interesting?

UPDATE: Check out the "Jenna Puts the J in J.Crew {and I heart JCAs!}" post for the follow-up to this story!

28 comments:

  1. Interesting article! Too bad they chose to ignore this blog. But we know they know we are here. ;)

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  2. I've been experiencing Jenna fatigue, but as someone who's had a lot of dental reconstruction I was sympathetic to hearing about her tooth travails, and I was impressed by her honesty and self-deprecation. (Although I bet the writer didn't get the details straight--I seriously doubt Jenna has dentures. More likely crowns or implants.)

    And to second Rose--I can't believe they overlooked the #1 JC blog!

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  4. Holy crap! This blog DEFINITELY should've been listed above mine! Goshsakes, I feel so silly - I skimmed the first page of that article yesterday and didn't even notice. Thanks, Alexis, for calling that out (I wouldn't have even known!) Maybe I should start updating the daggone thing a little more often....

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  5. Very interesting article. I shook my head at the comment re: "nothing too tight, too short, too synthetic". Huh? Most of the skirts have been too short for the past few seasons, and synthetics have been creeping into the content of many items. I agree about them missing the JCA blog, it's very odd that they overlooked it. Anyway, as Rose said, they know we are here!

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  6. God I want her job!!! I can't even imagine going to work and doing such fun stuff every day. *huge sigh* Not that I'd ever be a fashion icon -- I just want to toil behind the scenes and be a part of it.

    Oh, and get a fat discount on clothes. :P

    I am shocked that she chose to reveal that all her teeth are fake and that she has bald spots. That to me was damn brave. I can't say I'd ever cop to it.

    The word Toemageddon made me LMAO.

    I also loved the quote from the Voge fashion news director..."With the rise of the eBay generation, people are interested in making a statement with things that feel personal rather than just new." So dead on!

    Very interesting assessment of the takeover / rescue by Mickey, too.

    The poodle sweater! LMAO, didn't we all have one?

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  7. This is a good example of how to compose an article based on a handful of press releases, a 10-minute interview, and a page or two from last year's annual report. As I read the description of the clothing and style objectives, I wanted to shout "13-inch tinsel mini! Puffy feather mini! Stealth satchel! 'work' dresses with cleavage! Leather shorts with elastic waist and cheap lining trying to pass as cuffs!" I think this is more evidence that there is indeed such a thing as Inhalable Crewlade. I have felt it myself from time to time, but so far have been able to resist the urge to burst into song. And I suspect that the removal of Catalogs of the Recent Past from the JC website may be related to the superficial acceptance of the company's descriptions of its merch. Not that I visit Robin Hood's forest all that much these days...

    Time to move on. Congrats to Rats! Yay for the Hacking Jacket (conditionally til I check the fit in a 3-way mirror). And Alexis, we know they know you're here. You keep them honest, with love, but also with your own clear-eyed observations, something the NYMag writer sadly forgot to put in the article.

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  8. Nice article! Congrats to you and Ratsonparade for the mention!

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  9. How absolutely annoying that this blog wasn't mentioned. Especially when you know they are here several times a day.

    Kudos to Rats on Parade for her mention. :)

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  10. Rose: Thank you! :)

    Hexicon & Elaine: I was really impressed by her honesty too! It really was brave.

    Christy: LOL!

    RatsOnParade: Congrats on the recognition. You run a fantastic blog!!! :)

    Louise: LOL! I too thought that the quote you highlighted was interesting considering some of their offerings. For awhile, everything was too short and too synthetic. On a bright note, I am hopeful the Fall Collection will live up to that quote nicely. :)

    WellFedFred: I love the new term of "Inhalable Crewlade"!!! Also, my favorite line is the "Yay for the Hacking Jacket (conditionally til I check the fit in a 3-way mirror)". So true!!! ;)

    Pixelant & Huddyma: I agree- congrats to RatsOnParade!!!

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  11. Dear Mickey, trust me when I tell you that most women in the workplace don't want to wear their shirts unbuttoned halfway down their chests. It's bad enough when we wear them buttoned up.

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  12. It took me 10 seconds of research to determine that the so-called "ardent scrutiny" of jcrewaholics leads to a site that hasn't been updated since May 17. How does Jenna withstand such scrutiny!?!

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  13. OT: Alexis and WFF, IMO the hacking jacket DOES present three-way mirror issues. I love, love the grape but I am about to order another size (2R, 4P, now 4R) to see if I get the vent to sit properly. I know that it is not my flat booty making it pop open! I'd hope a good steaming of the side pieces would help but that vent is off.

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  14. Someone may have already mentioned this before but when I was on the 770 JCrew blog yesterday, under cool clicks, the JCA blog is listed. :)

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  15. Congratulations to RatsonParade for the mention but I can't help but echo the disappointment that Alexis didn't get a shout-out. She works hard to maintain this community!

    I really like Jenna and her publicist clearly works hard for her money but the article raised my eyebrows more than a few times. As much cool as J. Crew has established, they can really be out of touch and Mickey's comment on how to get women to wear an oversized shirt "unbuttoned to several inches below [one's] sternum" is a clear example. A look like that wouldn't work on most women and wouldn't work in most working/academic environments.

    I also scoffed at "This is a polite way of saying that Lyons has managed to elevate mall tastes to approach her own." While Jenna has unarguably cribbed very heavily from runway and high fashion looks and brought them to J. Crew, they have often fell quite flat. As WellFedFred hilariously pointed out "13-inch tinsel mini! Puffy feather mini! Stealth satchel! 'work' dresses with cleavage! Leather shorts with elastic waist and cheap lining trying to pass as cuffs!"

    I just wish someone would write an article about J. Crew without sipping and sniffing the Crewlade first. J. Crew still makes wonderful clothes but a lot of their coverage is akin to the emperor's new clothes. But I suppose that's why Jenna's publicist works so hard because that's the point.

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  16. Wow. I'm shocked (and also read it wrong) they didn't mention this blog because IT IS the Mothership. I dont read jcrewaholics so I just assumed it waas jcrewaficionada without even reading!

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  17. And really, WHY would I want to wear a man's shirt?

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  18. @ Christy: LOL!!

    Alexis of JCA should have definitely been mentioned. I don't care for the "official" JCrew blog. JCA is by far the best place where real people share their experiences!

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  19. Hexicon: Oh no! I hope the vent issue can be easily fixed. :( It was one of my favorite pieces from the Fall collection too.

    Jan: Thanks for sharing. I was happy to see they added the blog to the roll too! :)

    NoMoneyFun, Pixelant, & JCrewPhD: Thank you so much for the nice words on the JCA blog. It means a lot to me.

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  20. You should have been mentioned. I make more decisions to purchase from this blog than their website.
    I am shocked that this blog wasn't mentioned above others. Bizarre.

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  21. I went to college with Molly and I'm jealous she got to meet Jenna!

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  22. I debated on whether to comment on not because I cannot get over the fact that this blog wasn't mentioned, so I have nothing positive to add. I can't get over why the company is so cowardly about acknowledging this community. Clearly they are threatened.

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  23. -- oh, I think WFF is right about 10 minute 'research' and spoon fed PR bites, but there should've been public acknowledgement & gratitude from J Crew to the JCAs eons ago.

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  24. LOL @ wellfedfred's comment. "Toemaggedon". What will the press do with the photo of Jenna's son with her in her closet, trying on shoes?

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  25. I love pics with Jenna and her toe-headed son in the closet. He seems to be having fun. Kids need to have more fun. I think Mickey's man-shirt comment was out-of-line. Shame on him for making it known he noticed Jenna's unbuttoned shirt and to suggest that more women should dress like that....I found it unprofessional and creepy.

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  26. Oh, and they wouldn't DARE give a shout out for this blog because then everyone would know what we know. JC has dirty little secrets (buttons that break, seams coming undone, scratchy fabric, sizing inconsistency,etc). Oh no, they don't want to acknowledge that we have and NEED a Vent Post. Their heads are in the clouds and this Blog is reality slapping them in the face.

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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.

And now back to J.Crew! :)