Mickey Drexler Quotes

There are too many retailers. There are too many brands. There are too many designers. There are too many discount stores, and the predator online companies are selling discount like crazy.

We have secured names and trademarks with either loose ideas or intentions, or with our imaginations. Sometimes things come of it, or they don't.

Every single day, I'm curious about everything. Curiosity is finding answers to things.

If you get a pant that fits the woman, as all women know, you get a loyal customer for life.

If you think you know the consumer better than anyone, then you're in real trouble. So we take a close watch. You spend time in stores.

Service drives a lot of my decisions.

Growing up, I always wanted a bedroom of my own.

Steve Jobs, if he had lived, was gonna design an iCar. I think cars have an extraordinary opportunity for cool design.

I hire a lot of waiters, waitresses. Someone who's successful has a background that's not predictable.

Celebrities have nothing to do with style.

I would like Madewell jeans to be the Levi's of its generation.

The person is a resume, not what's on a piece of paper. Whoever gives advice about resumes in college should be dismissed. Titles don't matter. GPAs don't matter, nor does what school you go to.

If you don't care about the lapel or the buttons or the fit, then you are doing a disservice to the consumer. We're all inside the tunnel, speaking the language of business, but we need to speak the language of customers.

I loved the fact that if you put goods on the floor, you could watch them sell.

When you say something, and a thousand people are hearing it, you hope you leave an impression.

I find, in merchandising and design and creative, a business school degree isn't particularly helpful.

When I started at Bloomingdale's as a buyer, Alexander's was a discounter across the street, and every time Alexander's had something that we had at Bloomingdale's, we'd have to meet price. I didn't really want to be in a business where I had no control over my inventory, the value of my inventory.

I call them associates; I don't like the word 'employee.'

When I was young in the business, I felt anything I wanted to buy personally and professionally was always too expensive.

My office has no walls. You can't be removed from your team to be successful. You have to be respectful of others.

I grew up in the Bronx. I used to remember going to all these fancy stores in Manhattan to run errands or whatever, and I felt intimidated, like they did not talk to me because I was from the Bronx. I never want anyone to be intimidated by fashion. Fashion is fun or, at least, should be.

I define leadership as: Emotionally, you own your business. You own it with passion. And you either have or you don't have an economic investment. But when you have all three of those, you are the boss from Day One, and you care every single day more than anyone.

The British invented the classic look. Men's apparel was created in London, the great English style. You have to respect this country's suits, shirts, shoes, luggage.

Don't be buying out of emotion. Buy less if you love something but feel it's a risky item. We don't want overstock. And remember: No profit, no fun!

I look at companies as price-players or quality-players. The only way to go with J.Crew was quality.

I'm looking forward to partnering with TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners. This transaction is a clear endorsement of J. Crew and the hard work and dedication of all of our associates.

First, as I've always said, it all starts with product, which means having the right assortment, styles, and fits. Second is price, where we strive to offer the best quality, style, and design at a fair value. This is critically important, given the highly promotional environment we are operating in. And third, traffic.

Data is very important, but you have to be good at reading the data in an emotional way. If you look at a selling report, there's an emotional trend to what's selling.

Christopher Columbus discovered America in a blue-and-white sailor shirt, and since then, men have been wearing blue and white shirts.

My management style is there is no such thing as non-important people in the company.

I don't size up their grades or their board scores. Because in America today, that's just an advantage certain people have. I size up the give and take, the speed of thinking, what I perceive as ambition. I say, 'Tell me about your high school jobs.' And I love people who worked in coffee shops who were waiters and waitresses.

Do it, do it right, pay close attention to the product, and over time, you will win.

I like someone who's focused and can tell me what they've done well and not well and who's very open, honest, and self-aware.

Hong Kong has always been a dynamic and exciting and high-energy city, and it has that New York thing going on, and people here care about how they look.

Gap was essentially the American wardrobe that was well-priced, and it was attractive, and it was happy, and it had great color, and it has jeans, and I think we did the same with Old Navy. And I think we do the same with J.Crew at a much higher level, Madewell at another level.

Everything has a trend to it; I don't care if it's appliances or engines. I always ask, 'What has a company done in the past five years that somebody's noticed?'

If you get someone right out of college - and I meet a lot of them - you're not going to get a lot of experience at all, so you have to feel the ambition and desire, which is based on a lot of factors.

You know what ends up on the markdown racks? All the weird colors. Guys don't wear orange or citron.

Fashion is guaranteed to never always be right.

While 2015 was challenging, we implemented many strategic and operational initiatives to improve our business and better position J.Crew for the future.

I always wanted to have my own company. It was a psychological issue.

It is our job as always to focus on what we can control in the business.