Mickey Drexler

The Man With 40 Plus Years in Fashion

Staci Ray Kinser

2015

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Millard Mickey Drexler

Hailed as the man who dressed America, he turned around multiple mass brands like the
Gap before transforming J. Crew into a cult hit.
When I started as a Part-Time Sales Associate at J.Crew about two years ago I had never
heard of Mickey, only Jenna Lyons, whom I idolized. As I continued to work and learn about
J.Crew and fashion I learned of him and the things he had done in other businesses and my focus
slowly shifted from Lyons to Drexler. I find him and his business sense so intriging. The press
either loves him or hates him. He has made some bold moves, some mistakes but has been
influential in a number of successful fashion business. He was a buyer at Macy's and
Bloomingdales, and President of Ann Taylor. He delivered babyGap, debuted Old Navy, and
opened gap.com. Currently he is attempting and seems to be succeeding in turning around a
recent fall of one of Americas most celebrated retailers as chairman and CEO of the J.Crew
Group. In an attempt to understand and learn from Mickey Drexler and his magic I have studied
his big moments of truth.
Gap
After resurrecting Ann Taylor, Drexler was hired by Donald Fisher to fix the Gap. Just as
he would later do at J.Crew, Drexler set out to change everything.
The first week on the job, he sent signs to the staff with one word printed on them:
simplify. His idea was to transform every aspect of the Gap. He changed the clothing designsbringing in a new team of designers. He updated the look of the stores, as well as the logo, to a
clean, minimalist aesthetic. Despite an awful first year, sales exploded and the stock soared

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taking Gap from $480 million in sales to $13.6 billion within two decades. But by the end of the
'90s, Drexler's plan had run its course. He was fired/retired (no one seems to know which) from
the Gap in 2002 when its stock took a serious dive.
After cashing in $157 million in stock options, and forgoing a multi-million-dollar
severance payment from the Gap by refusing to sign a noncompete agreement, Drexler uprooted
himself from San Francisco and returned to his hometown of Manhattan to take over the
dwindling J.Crew chain.
J.Crew
Four months after he left the Gap, Drexler embarked on what may be the boldest
experiment of his career.
One of Drexlers earliest successes at J.Crew was recognizing the talent of then-vice
president of womens design, Jenna Lyons. Drexler quickly promoted her to creative director and
later to president. They reviewed the entire line, piece by piece Drexler adding his own dose of
magic here and there. He positioned Jenna in the perfect capacity to quickly became the face of
the brand. I first spotted her on jcrew.com in a section called Jennas Picks thus beginning my
obsession. Lyons was becoming a household name and she was gathering quite a following.
Drexler has gone on to reinvent J. Crew as a cult brand that has been showcased by the
First Lady during an episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as well as inauguration
festivities and later showcased by Oprah.
Drexler then increased the brand's range, adding wedding attire and a children's line. It
also added a new brand, Madewell, to appeal to the even higher end of fashion.

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Madewell
Mr. Drexler bought the Madewell name for $125,000 in 2003, agreeing later to lease it to
the J. Crew Group for $1 a year. In 2005, after J. Crew agreed to invest an initial $7 million in
capital, the brand was absorbed into the J. Crew Group, of which Mr. Drexler owns a significant
share. In 2006, Madewell opened its first store for women in Dallas, and Mr. Drexler soon
retooled the brands tomboy image. He hired new merchandising executives and designers to
shore up the quality of the jeans. In 2013, the company opened a denim office in Los Angeles to
be closer to local factories.
I would like Madewell jeans to be the Levis of its generation, Mr. Drexler said. "We
are cleaning and simplifying, so we're steering the collection towards the classic, straightforward,
and effortlessly sexy design and taking the things Madewell has done best tomboy pieces,
denim, and leather and giving them a bigger platform," he told WhoWhatWear. His strategy
obviously worked; profits jumped 35% in 2014's fiscal year to $245.3 million.
He sees Madewell as very much his own creation. He has even been known to call it his
baby, and it is growing up. Already this year, Nordstrom released an in-store line of
its offerings and in February, Net-a-Porter announced it would be peddling Madewell products
across seas to the U.K., its first advance into the global market.
Drexler saw a long-term investment in Madewell, and it seems to be paying off.
Mickeys Magic
I started this study wanting to know how to acquire Mickeys magic. His answer? You
always want better ways to do something. Youre curious about what the answers are. Every
single day, Im curious about everything. Curiosity is finding answers to things. And you know,

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you get some answers, and then you say, Well, this could be a business, this is an idea Then
at some point, youll get to where youd like to be. Then a warning: When you think you are
there, repeat steps one to nine. His success can be attributed to many things. But at the core,
Drexler is passionate about fashion, obsessed with details, and is a determined manager.

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References
Belvedere, M. (2013, December 19). Why stores 'race to the bottom': J. Crew's Drexler.
Retrieved November 30, 2015.
Clifford, S. (2008, November 16). J. Crew Benefits as Mrs. Obama Wears the Brand. The New
York Times.
Gordon, M. (2004, November 29). Mickey Drexlers Redemption. New York Magazine.
Holson, L. (2015, February 4). At Madewell, Mickey Drexlers Third Act. The New York Times.
Retrieved November 29, 2015.
J.Crew Group, Inc. Announces Fourth Quarter And Fiscal Year 2014 Results. (2015, March 18).
Retrieved November 29, 2015.
Mickey Drexler - Bibliography. (2015). Retrieved December 1, 2015.
Phelps, N. (2015, May 27). The Man Who Changed the Way America Dressed. Vogue Magazine.
TSE, T. (2013, August 8). Is Madewell Getting A Makeover? Retrieved November 29, 2015.

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