The Kingdom of Prep: J.Crew's Rise and (Near) Fall

The Kingdom of Prep: The Rise and Fall of J.Crew and the Shifting Landscape of Retail

Once upon a time, a humble J.Crew rollneck sweater held an almost mystical power in the hearts of fashion enthusiasts. The story of J.Crew is the story of the original "lifestyle brand," whose evolution charts a remarkable sea change in the way we dress, the way we shop, and the ideals we aspire to over the past four decades. This narrative is brought to life through iconic clothes and the most riveting characters imaginable.

In this quintessentially American fashion narrative, seasoned journalist Maggie Bullock tells J.Crew's epic story for the first time. She brings to life the deliciously idiosyncratic people who built the beloved brand, unpacking the complex legacy of "prep" – a subculture born on the 1920s campuses of the Ivy League – and how one brand rose to epitomize "American" style in two very different golden eras, only to eventually embody the "retail apocalypse" that rocked the global fashion industry.

Bullock's juicy business narrative, rich with humor and insight, combines the colorful characters of The Devil Wears Prada, the business insight of Deluxe, and the nostalgia factor of True Prep. She charts J.Crew's origin story, its Obama-era heyday, and its brush-with-death decline through the stories of the mercurial characters who helmed the company.

Readers will meet founder Arthur Cinader, who set out to sell the Ralph Lauren look for half the price, and his daughter Emily, who turned J.Crew into a new campus uniform and then a temple to '90s minimalism. They will also encounter the legendary (and controversial) retailer Mickey Drexler, the ex-Gap CEO who took J.Crew to unprecedented heights, only to contribute to its financial disaster. And at the center of it all is the brilliant designer Jenna Lyons, who rose from the anonymous ranks of a catalogue company to become a star in her own right, but whose brilliance ultimately left J.Crew in her shadow.

Through extensive interviews with more than 100 J.Crew insiders and top industry experts, Bullock crafts an impossible-to-put-down, neon-glitter-sprinkled tale that traces the trajectory of American style, invites us into the inner sanctum of fashion's most bold-faced names, and weaves together the threads of style, finance, and culture like no other brand's story in our lifetime.

This book, one of Vogue's most anticipated releases of 2023, is a must-read for anyone fascinated by the rise and fall of the first true lifestyle brand, and what its fate means for the shifting landscape of the retail industry.

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