Can J.Crew’s CEO Get Men Excited About Khakis?

Call it the tell-tale patchwork shirt. 

Slotted into J.Crew's latest men's collection—the first from its new men's designer, Brendon Babenzien, which rolls into stores on Monday—is a camp-collar shirt with the feel of well-loved pajamas and patterns that call to mind thrift-store ties. It's all part of the retailer's effort to yank itself out of a gingham-and-chinos rut.

The company, said J.Crew chief executive Libby Wadle in an interview at J.Crew's Manhattan headquarters this month, is "one of a few great American brands. I think we sort of lost that along the way."

The brand rode a fizzy, preppy style to great success for decades, but of late, its predictable array of sprightly polo shirts and crisp capris left shoppers cold. In November 2020, when Ms. Wadle assumed the role, it was on its third CEO in three years and was staring down an identity crisis. 

"We got pretty caught up—maybe too much—in just the commodity businesses and the basic businesses," said Ms. Wadle, who has spent nearly two decades at the mall retailer and is also the CEO of J.Crew's sister company Madewell.

An early retail casualty of the pandemic, J.Crew filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2020, following six straight years of losses. In September 2020, the company cut its debt in a deal that placed it under the ownership of a group of lenders, led by New York hedge fund Anchorage Capital Group LLC. 

One of Ms. Wadle's first steps was naming Mr. Babenzien, co-founder of menswear label Noah and former longtime design director at Supreme, as J.Crew's men's creative director in May 2021. For the past two years, Olympia Gayot, formerly of Victoria's Secret, has led the company's women's design.

Mr. Babenzien's first collection aims to rope in both first-time shoppers and those who pine for the label's madras-and-stripes glory days. (That nostalgia-laden fanbase is mighty: LostJCrew, an Instagram account dedicated to its pre-Y2K catalog years, has more than 26,000 followers.)

"You'll see hints of where we've come from," Ms. Wadle said, "but definitely not just going to what we've done in the past."

There is life beyond ho-hum gingham shirts in this refreshed J.Crew: an argyle vest that looks like something Jerry Garcia would have worn onstage, a punchy pinkish-plaid barn coat and bleached jeans with an air of Gucci. Many of the clothes could sit alongside pricier styles from contemporary brands like Aimé Leon Dore. Silhouettes are also expanding; Mr. Babenzien was wearing the aptly named "giant fit chino" during an interview at J.Crew's Manhattan offices this month.

These au courant updates target shoppers like Chuck Fowler, a 27-year-old structural engineer from Boston. He began shopping at J.Crew in high school, but recent visits to the retailer felt like a time warp to 2013. "I think it really lagged behind in the market," Mr. Fowler said, citing dress-shirt collars that were stubbornly tiny and overly slim pants. A Noah shopper, he is eager to see what Mr. Babenzien has come up with.

Men used to stockpiling J.Crew's plaid shirts and workaday slacks by the armful shouldn't fret: The staples aren't leaving store shelves. "Striking that balance of how much newness and how much basics or classics: That's the real trick," said Mr. Babenzien.

Nailing that risk-taker vs. take-me-to-the-cubicle mix is critical for J.Crew's future. Roughly 30% of the brand's customers are men, and Ms. Wadle sees a lot of opportunity to increase the figure—though she conceded that many women are actually buying the men's chinos for their husbands or boyfriends.

The men's business was already moving in the right direction, according to the chief executive. In the past year, sales of its suits like the well-known, $1,000ish Ludlow have ticked up by 85%, thanks largely to a resurgent wedding calendar. As offices reopen, the brand's corporate-friendly button-up shirts are also again in demand, with sales up 50% from last year.

'You'll see hints of where we've come from," Ms. Wadle said of the new collection, "but definitely not just going to what we've done in the past.'

Photo: Katie McCurdy for WSJ. Magazine

The evolving state of work attire is a hot topic around J.Crew's corridors. Ms. Wadle felt that men now craved clothes that were generally more relaxed after spending years working from home. Mr. Babenzien acknowledged that it was his team's duty to show men how to dress their sport coats down, with a T-shirt or polo. Much of this styling demonstration will come through J.Crew's online marketing efforts: It plans to completely overhaul its men's Instagram account in the coming months.

In other ways, Ms. Wadle has spent her tenure at the top remedying past problems that drove customers away, including "operational inefficiencies" that had led to quality issues. Today, there is a greater attention to detail, she said, and both she and Mr. Babenzien were pleased with the quality-to-cost ratio of the clothes the brand was now producing.

She said that J.Crew is trying to separate itself from its discount-mad past, when customers would receive frequent emails trumpeting bargain-basement price cuts. "The chino business, the suiting business, the cashmere business—these are businesses that across both men's and women's, we feel pretty strongly that we need to really hold our price integrity," Ms. Wadle said. In the age of the $1 Shein T-shirt, the race to be cheapest is already a losing game.  

Ms. Wadle said the company is working to expand size offerings and make marketing materials more inclusive. "America looks a lot different than maybe it did many years ago," she said.

Today, J.Crew is profitable, according to Ms. Wadle. While as much as 70% of its sales come through e-commerce, the brand is still open to investing in bricks-and-mortar locations where it sees fit. 

Later this fall, J.Crew will open a store focused on men on the Bowery in New York City. The location is being designed in partnership with Dream Awake, an interior architecture and design firm run by Mr. Babenzien's wife, Estelle Bailey-Babenzien.

Dedicated J.Crew shoppers may note that this sounds similar to the "Liquor Store," a one-off concept shop styled like a persnickety 1950s whiskey bar, which opened in downtown Manhattan during the aughts. Ms. Wadle didn't pull out any blueprints for the new concept shop but stressed that it will look nothing like that old-timey menswear temple. 

Ms. Wadle said that ideally, the store will be a template that can be copied at other J.Crew locations around the country. When that happens, she'll be there in those stores, asking customers what they think.

Write to Jacob Gallagher at jacob.gallagher@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications
An earlier version of this article incorrectly named the year J.Crew was placed under the ownership of a group of lenders, led by New York hedge fund Anchorage Capital Group LLC. It was 2020, not 2021. (Corrected July 25)

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