Once the darling among catalog merchants, J. Crew started its expansion beyond the glossy pages with a series of brick & mortar storefronts in the late 1980s. The hope was to capitalize the already well known name to a new set of customer base, and it did just that. However, in the midst of this growth, the stores themselves became much like any other retail chain, with cookie-cutter designs and lackluster atmospheres. To transform each of them into more than just a storefront but a destination, the label’s new Creative Director at the time, Jenna Lyons, and Head of Men’s Design Frank Muytjens went back to the fundamentals. Both curtailed the usage of “one size fits all” and instead created a space most suitable for each location’s demographic, starting with the now iconic Liquor Shop in TriBeCa. Hear Lyons and Muytjens talk of re-designing the J. Crew’s Men’s Shops in their own words on this latest episode of Complex Cut & Show video series.
