Crew is burdened with more than $2 billion of debt, a hangover from a leveraged buyout in 2011. Crew into more fashion-forward styles and higher prices ($800 skirts, $$1,900 sweaters) led to 10 straight financial quarters of declining same-store sales. Crew into an All-American fashion brand worn by the likes of Michelle Obama. Drexler is a retailing genius who had grown The Gap into a giant (before getting bounced as CEO in a sales slump) and had turned J. Crew, Brett will have big shoes to fill, and a rocky road. “Three days later, I had a big enough order to get a factory,” Fichtl said. She gave him a soap and a candle to sample. Chrissy Fichtl, founder of Apotheke, a successful soap-and-candle maker in Red Hook, tells about an encounter with Brett that helped launch her business. One summer day in 2013, Brett walked up to her booth at Brooklyn Flea and told her he was developing a concept store to sell Brooklyn products. In recent years, West Elm has grown significantly and launched West Elm Workspace, which provides furnishings for offices, and West Elm Hotels.īrett was known at West Elm for doing much of the scouting himself. He changed the mood of the stores by adopting a local-shopkeeper ethos, with in-store events and collaborations. He fixed the product line by seeking out craftspeople worldwide for inspiration and handiwork, with a commitment to Fair Trade Certified products. There wasn’t a curve in the store,” Brett told Fast Company. “The whole brand was brown boxes made in China. When Brett arrived at West Elm, which had opened its first store in 2003 in Dumbo, he found the products to be drab and spiritless. Brett showed a knack for mixing industrial-inspired furnishings with handcrafted ceramics and textiles. As an executive for Anthropologie and later Urban Outfitters, he honed his taste and “his expertise in merchandising a gentrified bohemian lifestyle to bourgeois consumers,” observed writer Dan Shaw in the New York Times. On his path to West Elm, Brett took part in some of the hottest retail growth stories. Crew Group, in the company’s flagship Madewell store (Photo by Clement Pascal/The New York Times/Redux)
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This is where the weakness is at the mall–it’s apparel.” And I don’t know who can solve this conundrum. Part of the reason for the carnage is competition from E-commerce, and part a slowness to adapt to changing tastes and shopping styles. “I just think this is a horrible business,” financial commentator Jim Cramer declared today on CNBC. The Limited and American Apparel have closed for good. among merchants of all kinds, including Macy’s, JCPenney, Staples and Radio Shack. The retail industry is reeling, with thousands of store closures in the U.S. His hiring, announced Monday, shook up an already beleaguered apparel industry, in part because he will take over from the legendary “merchant prince,” Mickey Drexler, who had struggled to turn around the once-high-flying company.īrett will have his work cut out for him.
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His office is in West Elm’s sleek new headquarters in Dumbo’s refurbished Empire Stores, his home is nearby, and he finds inspiration in such borough venues as Brooklyn Flea. But starting next month he’ll become a commuter, taking his talents to Manhattan in his new job as CEO of the iconic clothier J. Jim Brett, departing president of West Elm, at home in Dumbo (Photo by Brad Harris /The New York Times/Redux)Īs president of the home-furnishings brand West Elm, Jim Brett has had an ideal Brooklyn lifestyle.