Mickey Drexler's Nickname Used to Be 'Stubs'

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Mickey Drexler reveals a bit more about himself and his process in Business of Fashion's new print magazine. The retail guru, who famously has a loudspeaker system installed in the J.Crew offices so he can reach anyone, anywhere, at any time (even in the bathrooms) spoke with writer Lauren Sherman and BoF founder Imran Amed, who managed to weasel a few more fun facts out of Drexler and co. The story is online now; below, our favorite bits.

1. Jenna calls him a "meddler": "'The fact of the matter is, he's a meddler,' says J.Crew's president and executive creative director Jenna Lyons. 'But one of the benefits of working for someone who has been so successful is that he doesn't have anything to prove. He's not fearful of anything but not being happy and enjoying what he does.'"

2. He earned the nickname "Stubs" at Bloomies: "'At Bloomingdale's, my nickname was Stubs Drexler,' a moniker born from the then twenty-something merchant's habit of counting sales tags each day in the evening after the store had closed to keep track of performance."

3. He was inspired by Steve Jobs: "'I'll never forget when [he] showed us the iPod and said, 'How many do you think I can sell?' recalls Drexler, a member of Apple's board of directors since 1999. 'We all guessed around the table and he said, 'I think you're all really wrong.' Do you know how many Walkmen sold in the 1970s over a period of five years? I'll never forget that. That's exactly how you do it. You look for data that connects the dots and makes you figure out the next one.'"

4. He monitors what employees wear: "'I walked into the photo studio and three out of four women there were wearing skirts. And I said, 'Wow, what's with the skirts?' And, then, they told me where they were from and none of them were from J.Crew, which didn't make me happy, because they were otherwise wearing mostly J.Crew stuff.' After this revelation, Drexler hit up his sales team for data on the company's skirt business. Turns out, it's doing "amazing," he says. So why weren't those J.Crew employees wearing J.Crew skirts? His instinct was to bring in the marketing team."

· At Work With Mickey Drexler [BoF]
· J.Crew Fall 2014: Still Sparkly, Colorful and Texturized [Racked]
· Mickey Drexler Vows J.Crew Will Be Less Pricey This Spring [Updated] [Racked]