J.Crew to Jenna Lyons: 'Cut Back on Self-Promotion'

According to Page Six, J.Crew creative director/woman about town has been asked by CEO Mickey Drexler to 86 the self-promotion and shift her focus back to the company, which suffered reported losses of $627.2 million in the first 9 months of 2014. As one “source” puts it: “J.Crew CEO Mickey Drexler is tired of Jenna Lyons being out on the circuit and not paying attention to business.”

While J.Crew languished, Page Six reports:

Lyons had a guest role on “Girls” as Lena Dunham’s boss, graced a White House fashion summit, hired a 4-year-old blogger who appeared with Lyons in publicity stills, attended Solange Knowles’ wedding in a runway-ready outfit, and appeared in spreads for Harper’s Bazaar, O Magazine, the New York Times, Vogue and Yahoo.

Lyons, who became creative director of J.Crew in 2008, has long been credited with the de-prep-ification of a brand that used to look like this:

And, for a while at least, she seemed to have the magic touch. Although her personal brand certainly hasn’t lost its cachet, it’s clear that Lyons’ celebrity—once a boon to the J.Crew bottom line—has ceased to make much of a difference to the company’s profitability.

Of course, according to a J.Crew spokeswoman, no conversation of the sort took place between Lyons and her bosses: “This is completely inaccurate and couldn’t be farther from reality.” So: insider scoop or New York Post misogyny fanfic? Only time will tell!