A C.E.O. Sells the Store

New York Times, March 1, 2008 — Women’s suits. Mickey Drexler has women’s suits on the brain.

It’s a Tuesday afternoon in SoHo in Manhattan, and Millard S. Drexler — Mickey, as he is universally known — is in a Madewell store looking for customers he can talk to. Mr. Drexler, as you may know, is the chief executive of J. Crew — a job he took in 2003 after being summarily bounced from the Gap, the company he had led for 16 years, transforming it in that time from an $800 million midsize retailer into a $14 billion Goliath. Madewell, which he’s visiting today, is a brand-new J. Crew offshoot that sells hip, casual clothes. It’s a little like the way Mr. Drexler started up Old Navy to offer clothes that were less expensive than the Gap’s.

This visit is not some stunt Mr. Drexler is pulling because a reporter is in tow. Visiting stores, quizzing the staff, critiquing everything in sight — and most of all, meeting customers — is at the core of how Mr. Drexler runs J. Crew. It’s also what makes him happiest. He may be more hands-on than any other chief executive in the country. “The joke in the business is that retail is detail,” said Richard E. Jaffe, who follows the company for Stifel Nicolaus & Company. “Mickey lives that.”