End of the line for Jenna Lyons, the face of J Crew

Buzz is often banging on about the musical chairs and moving and shaking among personnel at the top of the luxury brands.

President and creative rirector of J Crew, Jenna Lyons, is leaving after 26 years.

Buzz is often banging on about the musical chairs and moving and shaking among personnel at the top of the luxury brands. Well, in the past week the high street also has been creating plenty of movement and news of its own.

First from US brand J. Crew — a popular online shopping destination for Australians and a must-visit store when in the States — comes news that president and creative director Jenna Lyons is leaving the company after 26 years.

Lyons was very much the face of the brand, which under her guidance became known for its quirky, preppy tailoring and exuberant embellishment.

Company chief executive Mickey Drexler told The Business of Fashion: “Jenna and I got together and we both agreed it was time for a change. That being said, she’s got plans to do other things. It’s been a great run. There’s a lot of mutual respect between Jenna and me.”

For her part, Lyons added: “It has been beyond my wildest dreams to work with such an amazing team of people at such an incredible brand and alongside Mickey, one of retail’s most talented visionaries. Having spent the better part of my life at J. Crew, I feel an immense pride and love for everyone at the company.”

So, that appears to be one of the most nicely worded exits from a company ever.

The company has been the subject of much financial speculation for the past three years as sales and revenue have dropped, including in the most recent financial results to the end of January, with much blame being pointed towards the women’s wear offering.

Swedish brand H&M is set to launch a new label called Arket. According to the company’s Stockholm HQ, this concept will translate as a “modern-day market”. (The word in Swedish translates as “sheet of paper”, for the interested among you.) This will add to its portfolio of brands that includes & Other Stories (which hasn’t yet made it to Australia) and COS (already a favourite among the local scene since arriving here in 2014).

Arket apparently will sit at a price point on par with those two style siblings, which is to say at a slightly higher price point than the main H&M line. Along with its own less trend-driven Arket label, stores will sell items from other brands that are not part of the H&M stable and will include homewares, food products and in-store cafes where possible.

Looks like we’ll have to wait a while for this one to arrive on our shores — but anyone travelling to London, Brussels, Copenhagen and Munich in the second half of this year will be able to check it out first-hand.

As a small aside, Buzz happened to tune in to the ABC’s 7.30 Report on Monday night to be charmed by the delightful British actor Bill Nighy. The equally charmed host Leigh Sales got him talking fashion and costumes, as apparently he is quite the sartorial aesthete.

Speaking about his latest film, Their Finest, set during World War II, he said that he did indeed have input regarding the costumes he wore in films. “It’s very important because costumes make you move differently, they make you feel differently, they make you act differently, finally,” said Nighy. Speaking about his latest film, he added, “Those clothes were beautiful. Towards the late 1940s, I think everything has been downhill since then, personally. All the girls look marvellous in those tailored suits and they look beautifully chic, and the guys, you know, that’s when trousers were trousers.”

Nighy for one, then, may well be interested in the return to baggy trousers creeping back into men’s fashion. We’ll be watching.