Last month, Oregon-based illustrator Tricia Louvar, 40, took to website The Hairpin with a comic titled “An Open Letter to Jenna Lyons,” aimed at the famously quirky creative director of J.Crew.
“You are pretty dope,” it began. “If only I, an ordinary mother on a modest income, could afford to wear a $400 cashmere skirt, silk barely-there blouse and belt to a one-time business-casual event.”
Louvar then tallied the cost of an “everyday” outfit at the retailer, finding that it came to $596, the equivalent of 298 school lunches.
“I was a fan of J.Crew for over 20 years,” Louvar tells The Post. “But as I look at the catalogs now, I just don’t get it. Back when I was in college, it represented a classic look that was seamless.”
Now, says Louvar, the brand embodies Lyons’ creative-cool lifestyle. “I love her style,” she explains. “But can I relate to it?”
She is not the only one wondering what the heck went askew at the brand. In 2014 sales at J.Crew declined, and the company’s CEO Mickey Drexler admitted it had been a “tough year.”
In December, Page Six reported, “after a dismal earnings report that saw the company go from a net income of $35.4 million to a reported loss of $607.8 million in just a year . . . style icon Lyons is being ordered by her bosses to focus more on the business and less on her own brand.”
Lyons, who regularly hits the red carpet in silk pajama pants or a feather-trimmed maxi skirt, was made creative director in 2008 and transformed what had been a line of unassuming basics into a fashion force, presenting the label at New York Fashion Week and launching J.Crew Collection, a capsule line with offerings like $498 pink lace trousers.
She became a darling of street-style blogs while gossip sites combed over her personal life. Last year, Lyons capped off her icon status with a cameo on HBO’s Brooklyn-set “Girls.”
Some backlash was inevitable, says New Yorker Lauren Sherman, 32, the editor-at-large for fashionista.com. “It’s easy to knock someone down when they’re at the top of their game,” she says.
Sherman feels the brand is unique because “the team is discernibly passionate about fashion and getting the product right, and that shines through. Sure, the Collection prices are high, but they’re working at a designer level.”
But while the more fashion-forward feel of J.Crew may have played well in certain corners, some traditionalists are crying foul.
In the last three or four years, it got ridiculous. I think the brand is more and more out of touch.
- Blogger Abra 'Belle' Belke
Abra Belke, 32, who blogs under the pseudonym Belle at DC-based fashion blog Capitol Hill Style, feels disappointed by a label she used to be loyal to and puzzled by what she sees as Lyons’ larger-than-life imprint on the retail giant.
“When Jenna started, people were excited because it was different,” says Belke. “But in the last three or four years, it got ridiculous. I think the brand is more and more out of touch . . . it seems to be going through an identity crisis.”
The catalogs, Belke feels, are overstyled, with models pairing suits with sneakers and out-there accessories.
“I think they’re designing for a very small subset of people who work and live in very specialized industries in New York. My boss still wears flesh-toned hose with her skirt suit. I can’t show up in a sequin pencil skirt.”
It perhaps comes as no surprise that sales at Madewell, J.Crew’s more accessible sister brand, are increasing while J.Crew stumbles. On a March call to address the company’s latest earnings reports, Drexler said he had heard his customers loud and clear.
His plans to turn the troubling numbers around include opening 20 more Madewell stores this year and reworking the fashion strategy at J.Crew, focusing on the classics.
A J.Crew spokeswoman declined to comment, but according to one J.Crew insider, you can bet that the design team is listening to calls for change.
“Jenna is very, very involved at the company,” says the source. “She touches everything.”
If getting back to their roots is part of the plan, it seems to be working over at Madewell, where the design DNA is more low-key.
Belke, the DC blogger, says that if J.Crew gets back to basics, she’d be glad to return. “As long as it doesn’t have neon feathers on it, and it’s something I can wear for three or four years, I’m in.”