A big "thanks!" to Emily again who shared with us the second part of the {insightful} article about Jenna Lyons, over at Fashionista (click here to read the article in its entirety). (Refer to this post, to read the first part.)
Life With Jenna Lyons! Part II By Britt Aboutaleb
May 11, 2009
Before and after I quizzed Jenna on her life, trying to grasp just how she does so much in so few hours, we wandered through J.Crew's massive offices.
Between men's, women's, kids, Madewell, the catalog, the website and CEO Mickey Drexler's daily bike ride through the office - there's a lot going on.
The design studio has its own separate floor on which there's a color library and separate sections for every team which means the walls are filled with inspiration in the form of editorials, fabric swatches, vintage clothes and jewels, favorite models, favorite seasons, pictures of kids, of parties, of houses.
Her office, a brightly lit corner full of magazines - including some Vogues from the 70s that I'm pretty sure I saw in the Met earlier in the week - samples, suitcases and furry pillows, is the center of the design action with people coming and going to discuss all things J.Crew.
You really have a hand in every single thing.
Definitely between the actual design of the stores - picking paint colors, rugs for the East Hampton store. It's amazing to be able to touch this much stuff.
You must never get bored.
No totally it's so funny, people always comment like, "Oh you've worked for the same company for so long," but I don't feel like it's the same company and I don't feel like I'm doing the same thing.
How long has it been?
Nineteen years.
Wow. Yeah it is so different. I mean I loved J.Crew in middle school and I love it now but I dress so differently.It is changing a lot. We're making it more modern and Mickey's been great in opening up the doors and letting us try new things.
Do you two work closely together?
Oh yeah totally. I'm surprised he hasn't been on the loud speaker. He's always on that loud speaker. He's amazing . I have to say he's so supportive of design and creativity and so much fun. To him, there are no limits, no boundaries. There's nothing we can't do. He has this thing, where if I ever say anything pragmatic he'll say, "No loser talk!" Like, don't shut it down until you've really tried. And sometimes I'll get practical and he works so hard to keep everyone's mind open. He makes production think outside the box, the merchants think outside the box, me think outside the box. He's just amazing and crazy at the same time. We joke about it all the time because he just gets so excited about things, like a little kid, that he can't keep a secret. I'll have to hide stuff from him because he wants to tell the whole world.
That's awesome. So out of all the different things that you do, do you have a favorite?
I think my favorite thing is, well, it's just amazing to me that I get paid to do this. I mean this is what I would want to do if I didn't have a job so the fact that someone actually pays me is pretty okay. I guess I could do without the budget stuff and the pressure sometimes. ...
What are your thoughts on the article (like or dislike)? Were there any aspects that you found particularly interesting or insightful? :)
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