J.Crew has been straight up struggle central recently. Examples include, but are not limited to: Mickey Drexler catching the fade, execs seen celebrating after a round of layoffs and analysts confirming that the company was heading down a bad path. J.Crew quickly responded with its budget-friendly "Mercantile" store openings. Now, the next step is apparently killing most of its higher-end, fashion-forward offerings in an effort to refocus on "basics."
Pricey outerwear and footwear pieces are going to be much less of a focus for the brand going forward, Mickey Drexler informed everyone on a conference call yesterday. The majority of its stock is going to be the pieces that made the brand so popular in the first place: sweaters, chinos and tees. Fortunately for J.Crew, it's such a large company that it doesn't have to wait until next season to get moving on all this. Starting September 14th, there will apparently be a big restock of offerings from the company that speak to this new, more sensible approach to fashion. It's all an effort to rekindle the love affair that customers had with retailer before they became too cool for school. Perhaps Jenna Lyons should start looking for a new job. Just a thought.
