Quotes from Mickey Drexler

I always wanted to have my own company. It was a psychological issue.

The first thing you see when you walk into a store is color.

When you say something, and a thousand people are hearing it, you hope you leave an impression.

The No. 1 thing is the product. The goods have to be good, but I care about how you feel about it.

I loved the fact that if you put goods on the floor, you could watch them sell.

Fashion is guaranteed to never always be right.

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.

First, as I've always said, it all starts with product, which means having the right assortment, styles, and fits. Second is price, where we strive to offer the best quality, style, and design at a fair value. This is critically important, given the highly promotional environment we are operating in. And third, traffic.

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.

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.

I'm looking forward to partnering with TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners. This transaction is a clear endorsement of J. Crew and the hard work and dedication of all of our associates.

Every single day, I'm curious about everything. Curiosity is finding answers to things.

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.

I would like Madewell jeans to be the Levi's of its generation.

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.

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 think I was the youngest, fastest-promoted buyer in the history of Bloomingdale's.

I've yet to see a correlation in my industry between great social media and great numbers.

I couldn't stand not controlling my own product from how it's manufactured to how it's sold.

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.

We have secured names and trademarks with either loose ideas or intentions, or with our imaginations. Sometimes things come of it, or they don't.

Customers don't just want to shop: they want to feel that the brand understands them.

I spot detail quickly.