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.
Mickey Drexler
I don't buy art. I'd rather buy a beautiful location or a beautiful site than buy art. A beautiful home is like owning a beautiful painting, except you can live in it.
People like consistency. Whether it's a store or a restaurant, they want to come in and see what you are famous for.
I always wanted to have my own company. It was a psychological issue.
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.
The No. 1 thing is the product. The goods have to be good, but I care about how you feel about it.
I never wanted to compete on price in my history because on price, you don't always win.
I couldn't stand not controlling my own product from how it's manufactured to how it's sold.
Growing up, I always wanted a bedroom of my own.
People put 'study abroad' on their resume. I actually like when they don't study abroad because that means they aren't entitled. What about study abroad will make you a better J.Crew associate?
Apple has beautiful design, beautiful product, incredibly functional. But mostly, it's about picking product, getting behind it, marketing it, and introducing it to a customer. What they've done just inspires me.
In a business, you have a vision, and you follow the vision. You have to execute. And then you have to learn how to run a good business. And I think if you look at the characteristics of any successful fashion business, it's all about that.
I spot detail quickly.
It takes a long time to get a reputation for quality. There are people in our industry, they're basically copiers. Look at the cars on the streets. They all look alike. But if you put quality into a product, then have it validated, you have huge credibility.
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.
I consider a merchant someone who has a certain intuition and instinct, and - very important - knows how to run a business, knows the numbers.
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.
Customers don't just want to shop: they want to feel that the brand understands them.
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.
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.
I love to work. I have a passion for what I do.
What matters is hard work, and emotional intelligence.
You banter, and you talk, and you get a sense of the speed of thinking and flexibility... It's not terribly scientific, but I interview a dozen or two dozen people a week, and I get a certain vibe reasonably fast.
You know what ends up on the markdown racks? All the weird colors. Guys don't wear orange or citron.
The first thing you see when you walk into a store is color.
You have to build a team, but someone's got to lead, and someone's got to be unpopular at times.
I find, in merchandising and design and creative, a business school degree isn't particularly helpful.
Christopher Columbus discovered America in a blue-and-white sailor shirt, and since then, men have been wearing blue and white shirts.
If you get a pant that fits the woman, as all women know, you get a loyal customer for life.
We buy and sell goods. We buy low and sell higher - that's what we all do to make a profit. But I consider a merchant someone who has a certain intuition and instinct, and - very important - knows how to run a business, knows the numbers.
I hire a lot of waiters, waitresses. Someone who's successful has a background that's not predictable.
People put 'study abroad' on their resume. I actually like when they don't study abroad because that means they aren't entitled.
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.
I'm always looking over my shoulder, needing to stay ahead of the game.
I like to prove things wrong.
I'm an agent of change all day long, and I want to meet other people like that.
I'm looking for best practices constantly. Apple has beautiful design, beautiful product, incredibly functional. But mostly it's about picking product, getting behind it, marketing it and introducing it to a customer. What they've done just inspires me.
If you don't get trained for your SATs in America today, you are at a disadvantage. Training is expensive and a lot of kids don't get trained, perhaps. So I also identify with the kid or the person who has grown up in environments like I've grown up in.
Creativity runs on automatic, no matter what's happening in other parts of my life. I can't help myself. It's been in me, and it evolves in me over the years. It's a condition in me.
A merchant is someone who figures out how to select, how to smell, how to identify, how to feel, how to time, how to buy, how to sell, and how to hopefully have two plus two equal six.
I would like Madewell jeans to be the Levi's of its generation.
I look at companies as price-players or quality-players. The only way to go with J.Crew was quality.
I loved the fact that if you put goods on the floor, you could watch them sell.
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.
Every single day, I'm curious about everything. Curiosity is finding answers to things.
When I was young in the business, I felt anything I wanted to buy personally and professionally was always too expensive.
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?'
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.
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.
Steve Jobs, if he had lived, was gonna design an iCar. I think cars have an extraordinary opportunity for cool design.
