J.Crew's partnership with New Balance - Photo: RetailWire
Hindsight, it has frequently been said, is 20-20. So, what does Mickey Drexler, CEO of J.Crew Group, see when he looks back on his company’s performance over the past 10 years? According to an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Drexler sees mistakes he and his company are still trying to correct. What he won’t know until later is what mistakes he and J.Crew are making now that will also need correcting down the line.
In the interview, Mr. Drexler admits that he did not appreciate the rate at which technology was changing the fashion retail business. This is particularly true in the supply chain where fast-fashion retailers have created design and production models that can react within weeks to the changing whims of consumers.
Mainstream apparel retailers from Gap to J.C. Penney are working on ways to transition from traditional sourcing models and shorten the time it takes to go from the designer drawing board to the sales floor. J.Crew has moved some of its production from China to nations closer to the U.S. so it can shorten its timeline.
Mr. Drexler also acknowledged that J.Crew had gotten a little too big for its own boots. He pointed to a decision to debut the company’s upscale J.Crew Collection in 2008 while many consumers struggled from the financial effects brought about by the Great Recession.
The chain’s mainstream brand is not going the discount route, but Mr. Drexler told the Journal that J.Crew is lowering prices on about 300 items and has created an analytics group to optimize pricing on all the products it sells.
Jenna Lyons, J.Crew president and the company’s long-time creative director, stepped down from her position at the company after several years of declining sales.
Ms. Lyons was replaced by Somsack Sikhounmuong as chief design officer at J.Crew. Mr. Sikhounmuong, who was head designer for the company’s successful Madewell brand from 2013 to 2015, is responsible for overseeing the design teams for J.Crew’s men’s, women’s and crewcut lines.