Meet the crew

KINGSROAD.CO.UK AUGUST 28, 2011

London lovers of J. Crew can finally rejoice! The American label has plans to bring the classic, well tailored menswear inspired lines across the pond. Since taking over in 2007, Jenna Lyons, creative director, has been the talk of the fashion town. Lyons has reinvented and created a multimillion dollar mass retailer with serious popularity and credentials, and now she is transporting her preppy color combos to the UK.

Even if you aren’t yachting around the New England states or staying in the Hamptons for the summer, J. Crew knows that its customers crave great classic blazers and beautiful white shirts mixed with current trends and a little bit of pop.

The (usually) affordable fashion retailer gained online hype as it allowed Net-A-Porter to sell selected pieces on the luxury go-to shopping site. As of late, J. Crew launched a Brit-accessible ecommerce site with more variety and the complete collections.

Lyons didn’t stop here.

Profiled in September’s Vogue issue, plans of expansion were happily discussed. "We'd love to open stores in the UK, I'm absolutely champing at the bit to do it! We have a trip planned soon to look at locations and hopefully we'll be able to learn a lot from the UK ecommerce launch - what the UK customer wants. We know a little already - because British customers often shop in our stores in New York and elsewhere and then have the goods shipped back to the UK - but this will definitely help.”

Lyons also told Vogue, "We wanted to make sure we had all our ducks in a row in the US - but things are solid so now is the right time to look at the UK."

As notable faces like Michelle Obama and Sarah Jessica Parker continually mix J. Crew’s classics with high end designers and occasionally wearing it head-to-toe, the publicity is going nowhere.  With Lyon’s fresh new take on clothing items that men and women have had in their closets for 40 plus years, J. Crew will not be going out of style any time soon.

Question is, where shall they put the London shop?

Courtney Beard




Read more of my stories at KingsRoad.co.uk      xx