The Preppy Handbook

0:28Hello and welcome to Fashion People. where I send an email called Line Sheet. If you're a fashion person, you get that reference. It's an original look at what's really going on inside the fashion and beauty industries. Line Sheet is scoopy, analytical, and above all, fun. Along with me, a subscription to Puck gains you access to an unmatched roster of experts reporting on powerful people and companies in entertainment, media, sports, politics, finance, the art world, and much more. If you're interested, listeners of fashion people get a discount. Just go to puck.news slash fashion people to join puck or start a free trial.

1:07Happy Friday, everyone. This is quick because I'm totally extremely busy, just as all of you are. But I just wanted to say that we had an absolutely fabulous time last night at Chateau Royale, hosting a very special puck private dinner with Starbucks. Yes, there were espresso martinis, but it was so much more. There was plenty of conversation, which of course was off the record It was a really interesting mix of people I love doing these dinners because we bring in, you know, people from Victoria's Secret and People from Tibby and people from Rachel Antonoff was there There were a bunch of gap people like it's a it's a really good mix high low low high and I had a great time I hope everyone who attended did as well and made some new friends I suspect you're going to see Starbucks doing a lot more in the fashion space.

1:59They have a whole new team there, new chief brand officer, Tressie, and a lot of new great people, new CEO, obviously. So it was interesting. I'm so glad that they did it. It was fun. I hope we can do another one with them. And I was happy to kick off the week with this dinner. So if you're in New York this weekend, And Libby and I are going to talk about this on the podcast, but be sure to check out the J.Crew house, which is in that old bank building, Google Germania bank building, New York magazine. There's an amazing story about the family that used to own it. But anyway, I think we kind of covered that.

2:38I can't even remember, but it's really cool. It's an amazing space. I stopped by the cocktails on Tuesday night. They had a big dinner there. Martha Stewart was there in her roll neck. We talked about that a bit, but it's really cool. Libby describes it in the podcast. I think it's worth going to. It's catalog come to life. So enjoy it and check out Line Sheet. Lots of scoops, lots of fun stuff in there, but I'm too busy to talk about it. You'll have to read to learn more. Libby Waitle, welcome to Fashion People. Hey, Lauren. Super excited to be here. I think you're my first in-person recording other than the live tapings we've done.

3:16Wait, ever? Yeah, because we always do it via this app, Riverside. Right. We never record in person. Thank you. Well, I'm so happy to have you. What did you have for breakfast this morning? I had, okay, so I recently visited my parents and they live in Colorado. And so I just eat whatever they have. And I was reintroduced to, of all things, this is very retro, Grape Nuts. Oh, wow. So I have, so now I bought Grape Nuts. I came back home and I have grape nuts on my yogurt with some blueberry. Lots of fiber. It's amazing, actually. It sounds really good. It's very satisfying. I also think this protein insanity is about to move into fiber insanity.

4:01Oh, really? So I bet they're coming back. You do have a sense of what's next. I don't think that grape nuts is really as wholesome as you think it is. I think it's probably, yeah, it's pretty processed, I would imagine. Interesting. But it's really delicious. So did you go from breakfast right to 190 Bowery? No. Can you tell us? We are sitting in this amazing room covered in striped fabric, cotton. I don't know. Is there like a particular name for this? We've got some Oxford in here. Yeah, this is really an Oxford. We're sitting really on like a striped Oxford couch. But you're sitting in the Stripe Room inside 190 Bowery, which is the J.Crew house that we've taken over for the week.

4:49And it's really meant to be, you know, you walk into a catalog brought to life. And so we have, you're sitting in the Stripe Room and you walk through and we have a cashmere room. So a bed draped in cashmere with piles of cashmere. We have a beautiful dining room with sort of clothes draped everywhere. It really is meant to be sort of what it would feel like if you were living inside a J.Crew catalog. What made you all want to do this? And you were in a very particular building. This 190 Bauer is Germania. Is that what it was called? The bank building? Yes, that's right. Yes. And it has a ton of history.

5:30for a while, Toto Kayo was in the next door. Supreme is on the end right now. Great Bowery, the agency was here for a long time. It's a really cool old school building. There was actually also, I think, I actually learned this last night from someone I was sitting next to. We had a dinner here from Rory and she told me that there was a family who used to live here as well. So there's a whole story around a family who lived here. Yeah, there's a great New York Magazine article. Yes, that is. And she's sending me a clip. I haven't read it yet, but I need to read it. They made so much money on this building.

6:05What made you all want to do this? I was here last night briefly for cocktails and it really did. I saw one of the models from the catalog and it really did feel like we were living in the catalog. You all just published, which is really awesome. Like it's just such a great campaign and great visuals and everything feels. I hate using food words for fashion, but it does feel like very yummy. It is delicious. It's really, really good. No, it's good. I mean, what made us want to do this? I mean, honestly, we've been doing for the past few years around this time activations and things like that, just celebrating.

6:43We did, you know, we had a big 40th anniversary a couple of years ago, big party. We did this incredible activation at the New York Public Library last year, which was also great. But we heard a lot of feedback from our customers, you know, that they wanted a piece of the action. They wanted to be part of it. So we wanted to put something together that felt very immersive, like you said, walking into a catalog. And then we're having this space all week and we're inviting the public in and they're able to walk through and really experience it. So really, this was a way to open ourselves up. We really had this brainstorm conversation.

7:21There's a group of us who are like the creative group of obviously Olympia, who is our creative director on women's. Brendan from men's. Julia is our new chief marketing officer who's great. And actually, Kevin, who is our chairman and really a partner to me, Kevin Ulrich. Like he, all of us together were brainstorming, okay, how are we going to just sort of do better than we've ever done and do more? And using this feedback, like hearing this feedback that we get through all of our channels is we want to be a part of the whole J.Crew thing. And so it was just sort of started there. Like how do we bring it all to life?

8:00Yeah. It's interesting. Why did you decide? Because the first two, the first one I missed, I had an event. The second one I missed, I had a fashion show. You missed them both? I missed them both because I had a fashion show last year that I had already RSVP'd for, and it was very far away, so I couldn't. And I was very sad. And last night I also had something, but I was able to stop by, and I'm so glad because everyone, there's so much goodwill for these things. And I understand from the industry perspective why we like having this here. You all do. You make it a really good time. But why do you think it's good to, like, engage around Fashion Week in particular?

8:42Especially because it's sort of diminishing in terms of its, in the U.S. at least, in terms of its importance in the market. In terms of what it was originally meant for, I think. But it has become an opportunity, honestly, to show up and talk about your brand. And honestly, we're taking advantage of everyone's here. I mean, the open just finished. People are in town. They're getting work. We're actually right before Fashion Week starting. And we wanted to do something that felt totally like ourselves and not try to be something we're not. And so if you walk into this house, which I'm not sure when this is airing, maybe Friday morning.

9:22So on Friday, we'll be open to the public. So if you're in New York, you can see. But there's just sort of an irreverence to it. If you walk around, there's like, you know, a dry cleaning bag with a J.Crew shirt hanging. And there's just it's just very real and authentic. And it's really how J.Crew shows up. And so I don't know. We just wanted to show up that way for more people. And, yeah, it's a good time. I mean, who doesn't love fall this time of year in New York? The weather's so good. It's a beautiful, beautiful time. I ran into Martha Stewart. She was here. In the atelier that's set up, and it was pretty amazing.

9:57You got great celebrities, a great mix of people. Yeah. Just felt really, really good. It was good. Martha was wearing a roll neck. It was iconic. She was, and she looked amazing. So how did you get here? You have worked at J.Crew for a long time. you're sort of one of these retail lifers you've been in the industry and worked at different brands for for most of your career all of your career and you you have been leading j crew during this period where it has been like a period of a lot of creativity and a lot of sort of burnishing of the brand itself after you know 15 years of highs and lows and amazingness but you really were able to the thing that I think is interesting about your tenure leading the group is that you were able to take the best things of J.Crew and make it feel new and for now and what people want now and that is such a challenge so tell tell us how how you got here where you started and what your sort of path was in terms of retail like which area of the business that you focused on.

11:09So you want me to start at the very beginning or you want me to start in 2020? No, the very beginning. Oh, yeah. Then we'll talk about it at the mall. Yes. I want you to start. I want you to start with how did Libby work her way up to run the entire J.Crew group? And what I you were a merchant. But I am a merchant. You are a merchant. What what how how did you what what made you want to do it? Why did you stay? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Let me, let me try to hit each of those. So, well, I start, I really did start at the mall and I'm just a retail girl. I'm like, I was a mall rat growing up. It was, you know, where I grew up.

11:53I was a teenager in sort of the late eighties, I guess, early nineties. And I, you just went to the mall and I could, I was too young to get a job at a retail store. So I applied for a job at the Haagen-Dazs ice cream counter. And I loved it. And I mean, I still remember a best-selling flavor, macadamia nut brittle. Macadamia nuts in the 80s. It was like the kale of the 80s. Interesting. Yeah. They are really good. They're good. They're so bad for you, I think. Very rich. I doubt they have that flavor anymore. But anyway, so I worked there briefly. until I was able to beg my way into a retail job through my dad, actually, who shopped at this store.

12:42It was an old haberdashery store in Georgetown. I don't think it exists anymore. I grew up outside of Washington, D.C. It was called Britches of Georgetown, a men's store, and he had a guy who helped him, and he got me a job at their kind of younger, preppier, cooler version called Britch's Great Outdoors. I think if there's people listening or from the East Coast or the Mid-Atlantic, they might know it. It was a mini chain. And so I got a job. I got a job there and I fell in love with selling, honestly. What's funny about that store, I mean, the best selling items there were the rugby and they were known for these like rubber rubber buttons on the placket on the rugby.

13:27It was very preppy. It was not that different from where I'm sitting today. I'm like, we're like sitting in that moment. And so, yeah, so I just loved it. I felt I was immediately hooked on retail. And so I started at the mall and I basically went to college, not for fashion, not for retail, but my memories really of college, I went to school in Boston. We're all about just working at the Chestnut Hill Mall at the store in my side hustle. At J.Crew? Not at J.Crew, actually. Not at J.Crew, but I did get my first. When I was graduating, through my experiences, I learned about a job called buying.

14:10You know, you don't really know what the jobs are. You have no idea. You're either like a fashion designer or you work in a store. So I learned about buying and I'd heard about this really glamorous sounding Bloomingdale's buyer's training program. So I graduated and I actually bought my first interview suit at the J.Crew in Boston. It was in their old collection section. It was this incredible wool twill, Italian fabric that we probably still use. It was incredible. And I didn't get the job. I didn't actually apply for Bloomingdale's. I didn't even get that interview. I applied to another department store, which is no longer in business, and they did not hire me.

14:56And they also asked my SAT scores during the interview for a job after college, which is funny. Very weird. Which I wasn't that proud of, so that wasn't great. But so I didn't get the job. And I decided, Listen, I love retail. And I moved myself out to the West Coast, where at that point, the company I ultimately knew I wanted to work at was The Gap, and they were based there. I didn't have a job there, but I got a job at the mall. And I had an incredible sort of selling experience probably three months into it with a woman named Nancy Green. Oh, I know Nancy Green. Yes, who is currently the CEO of Beyond Yoga.

15:37It's amazing. Amazing. And she recruited me based on my service into the first ever merchandising training program at The Gap. Yes. And that is, I went for the interview. They gave me a job on the spot. Who does that now? That doesn't happen these days. And yeah, I started in that program. And this is 90s? 90s? This was, yeah, this was like mid 90s. Yeah. It's so funny because all of these people, Nancy Green, they're all, you're all celebrities to me, but it all, you're all so still connected. Yeah. It's really amazing how many people came up through that. It's a small, it's a small world. Well, you know who I also love who was there around that time is Jenny Ming.

16:26Jenny Ming, yeah. She's so awesome. And Old Navy started when I was there. Yeah. So what was it like, Like you're working at the biggest brand in the world in so many ways and also kind of dictating how people were dressing at the time. Through the 80s and the 90s, the gap was it was where, you know, 90 percent of the population started. It was major and it was it was the place. It was very cool. And I just learned I learned everything there. And it was a big company, you know, I don't know, maybe maybe 10 billion. at the time, and it didn't feel big, which was the beauty of it. And I learned how to be a merchant, and I learned how to sponge it all in and soak it up.

17:13And, you know, I was an assistant merchant presenting to the CEO, Mickey, at that time. And that just wouldn't have happened anywhere else. And it was super unique. And I got, I just, it was incredible. So I was there for about 10 years. And then I moved to New York. And one thing led to another. I had a little stop in between. But I got a phone call from Mickey who had landed at J.Crew. And I vividly remember driving. I was out on Long Island visiting someone. And he called my cell phone. And it was sort of pretext, I guess, those days. And it was a big deal then. And I said, hold on, I have to pull over.

17:56and he said listen you want to come join this team we're just starting this up I know you do women's because I was always in women's prior to that but we don't have that job but we're we have this outlet business and right now we just sell like you we just sell you know old catalog things old retail store things and we have 40 stores and you can make it whatever you want. Just come on board. And so I took it and jumped in. And that was really the opportunity I had to take on something bigger and make it my own. I was no longer a merchant. I was general manager. And it was incredible, actually.

18:46Do you think when people do profiles of Mickey, they often talk about him being like a micromanager? Do you think his approach, like him calling you and being involved and you presenting to him and the way he ran his businesses, did that, has that influenced how you lead and how you interact with the people that are now all working for you? That's the good micro of micromanager. I mean, honestly, I just this morning was on the phone with someone I want to come work for us and she will report to someone who reports to me who reports to me. And and but we really want this person. And I I called her and had that conversation and was trying to understand sort of what she was thinking about, how she was making the decision.

19:34it's absolutely a big part of what I learned being there through that generation is just that connection with the people who you work with and your customers and just sort of he's a sponge it's like a constant how much can I learn from you and that's I definitely got that from my time there and what was learning that outlet business what do you think that taught you because now outlet is such a big part or off price is such a big part of every business do you think that that was good to have that foundation when you started at j crew given the way the market works now yeah i mean you learn the power of value for sure and and and and that value proposition and how you how to really price something to move it and honestly though that gave me the opportunity to completely developed product.

20:28I had been a traditional merchant with a designer and I was able to, that the merchants in that business really developed the product. And it's very straight, much more straightforward. You really, it's a very merchandise driven assortment. And so I had the opportunity to really hire a team, build a line and, and really do everything from scratch. So I just, I, I was able to be very, very hands-on in all aspects of the business through that experience. So it really wasn't just about outlet. It was just starting up a business that I really was good at. And I didn't know that really until I had gone and took that opportunity, which was kind of scary because I had never done outlet, factory.

21:14And I certainly had never started up anything. But it was a real luxury to be able to be in a business that had resources but also be able to start up. And it became really a cash cow for the business. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. So how did you end up moving out of that? So I kept it. So the thing about that time, it was very, the approach to leadership was very collaborative. And so I had a lot of roles, a lot of part-time roles, which I'm so fortunate to have had. I mean, honestly, the business was less complex. Online was around, but it was more one-dimensional than it is today. and so I took on Madewell or I honestly was part of the incubation of Madewell that took a while to sort of figure out who we were when we acquired that name when Mickey did and but once that really sort of started to take shape I took over that business as well but I actually held on to the factory business it was a very eclectic mix of businesses but it was great and I helped built the team for that.

22:23And I did that for a while. So yeah, I was the head of J Group Factory and Madewell. When you all launched Madewell, I think that a challenge with these kinds of groups is the fear of cannibalization. So I remember Jenny Ming telling me a story about Old Navy where she had a$29.99 cargo pant and the gap was$45 and the gap was like, yours is too nice. she was like oh well and that is a challenge and and i think in the end you were able to distinguish them enough but how did you do it and how were you all thinking about that because reality of it is you all sell similar things yeah the big it actually was a pivotal moment for us when we because we actually did go through that sort of who are we and who should we be we actually started with men's no one really knows that and we quickly didn't do it i don't even remember if It made it to market.

23:20But we focused on women's. And it was at the time when premium denim, skinny jeans, stretch was really a big thing. And there was this opportunity for people not to pay over$200 for jeans. At that point, you know, the premium brands were over$200. Now they're even more. And there was a big opportunity really to service this$100-ish price point. but give them sort of this premium quality at a non-premium price. So I think the key with Madewell, which I believe actually has been pretty differentiated from J.Crew, it's because we really leaned in to denim from the beginning and made that our franchise.

24:06But you have to be very careful. I mean, to this day, I oversee all of the brands. And you have to be careful not to bring everything into you. I go from one meeting on an assortment review to another and, and your approach has to be different and how Olympia might translate a trend in J. Crew is different that if you have your head on straight about who your brand is and who your aesthetic is, what Steven, our creative director at Madewell is doing will be very different in how he sees that trend. Do you have brand books or are the brands too, you like established to have something like that?

24:48You know, we have J.Crew. We've, you know, when I started about two years after I started, one of the biggest, this is not really what you're asking, but it really actually the process of this really helped. I think on LinkedIn, one of the first questions was, could you please make a coffee table book out of your old catalogs? And that was honestly when, so that came up when my appointment was announced. And so it was in my brain. We just weren't ready. We had a lot to do before we could get there. But two years into it, we did a coffee table book. And the process of that book really helped cement the generations.

25:27And so we have a few different versions of that, that when we now go back and, for instance, put this house together, we really had to get in touch with all of our generations, you know with the 80s and the 90s for j crew and what that meant and obviously the the aughts and and that's what you say aughts right the 2010s i don't know yeah yeah yeah the naughties you can say okay the 2010 the 2010s really and that was another peak time a lot of people have memories and that's when i was there running it with mickey with jenna and so there's all these generations of the brand that are all rooted in the same thing.

26:10But it's important. It was important exercise to put it all together, I think. So we do do that in each of the brands to make sure that we really feel our, we know our identity, we know our handwriting, our personality, but we don't do it in like a fancy marketing-y way, if you know what I mean. Yes, that makes sense. It's not brand book like agency brand book. It's like emotional brand book. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you have been there since, what, 2004, 2005? Yeah, I've been there, I think, 22 years. 22 years. Wow. Okay, so you have been through several iterations of the business. and also you were there during a time j crew is the kind of brand that it had such a peak with the michelle obama and the jenna and all of that so i remember you being on the cover of a magazine with jenna like there was a wind machine if i look at their great photo but it was such an the bubble neck all that stuff i was like this is never they're gonna it's not gonna work it's It's just going to become the past because it's harder now to get away from things because everything's so instant.

27:29So people can look up imagery from that era and they look up at Simplicity City. There's J. Crew catalogs everywhere on the Internet. And so it's hard to sort of escape your past, especially your recent past. And I just thought it's not possible. And there were a few leaders between you and Mickey when Mickey retired. And then there were a couple people who tried and it didn't work. How did you end up getting the big job? And what was your pitch to the board? Because you were this person who you would sort of be, you would have a very senior role. You were always around. And then suddenly it was like Libby did it.

28:12So Libby figured, navigated this, this whole thing to get to like make, make it to the top. And then when you got there, you actually did the thing that needed to be done. But how, what was your pitch to the board when it was, when you were up for that job? You might have been up for it many times, and I don't know. It's so kind of regular when I tell you the story. So it was 2020. So I've had this role about five years. And it was obviously a weird time for everyone. We had new ownership and a lot less debt than we used to. I had just come off of running. I was running Madewell and it was coming off an incredibly high performing boom time for us and was all living and breathing the brand, living and breathing the brand, but also just trying to navigate through what was a very turbulent time for everyone.

29:08And especially us, given our switchover and ownership and all of that. And so I had a new owner, Kevin Ulrich, who I mentioned earlier, who's our chairman now, and he runs Anchorage Capital, and they're the majority owner. And so he was really the person I was most in touch with throughout that transition time before anyone had that job. Yeah. There was a time where there were two of us. And and so. I was establishing that relationship just through kind of what we're doing now, just talking about the business and what I think and all of that. And I had a lunch in the fall of 2020. I'll never forget because it was that moment what you just said, like, oh, Libby made it.

29:51Like I had that feeling of, oh, this is it. But I was, you're going to crack up because you know the restaurant in the neighborhood. I live in Williamsburg and I had lunch with Kevin. I walked him through the Madewell store on North 6. And then we had lunch at Cafe Mogador outside because everyone was eating outside at that point. Oh my. Yeah. And that's around one block from my house. And we were talking and having a good lunch and talking about the business and talking about just how we should be as a brand. And we were talking about J.Crew. J.Crew wasn't mine at that point, but just what the opportunity was to really live up to the brand.

30:35And he really saw that as well. And he said to me, OK, so do you just want to run this whole thing? It wasn't like I went into the board and made a big pitch. It really happened, but that was perfect because it was organic. It was natural. It was a partnership. And that's honestly how it's remained today with Kevin. And so, yeah, that's how it happened. And then in terms of the board, I mean, even beyond the board, it was really first order of business was getting creative back in the house. Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk about Olympia and Brendan. I'm sure you've told the story many times. You knew Brendan for a long time before.