--- title: J. Crew's Jenna Lyons on How to Take Criticism description: "I don’t think about things in a singular way, I care about the mix" canonical: https://time.com/collections/shaping-our-future/4068507/jenna-lyons-j-crew/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-09T19:50:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T11:54:13.666Z og:title: J. Crew's Jenna Lyons on How to Take Criticism og:description: "I don’t think about things in a singular way, I care about the mix" og:url: https://time.com/collections/shaping-our-future/4068507/jenna-lyons-j-crew/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt36486aeade566db1/698867b2cf40a8d5e3c4021c/lyons_1920_thumb.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: J. Crew's Jenna Lyons on How to Take Criticism og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: J. Crew's Jenna Lyons on How to Take Criticism twitter:description: "I don’t think about things in a singular way, I care about the mix" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt36486aeade566db1/698867b2cf40a8d5e3c4021c/lyons_1920_thumb.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 09, 2015 # J. Crew's Jenna Lyons on How to Take Criticism by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) and [Cubie King](/author/cubie-king/)  Cubie King for Time Walk down the streets of any American city and you’re likely to see Jenna Lyons’ handiwork. The J. Crew creative director and president has been dubbed “the woman who dresses America,” and she’s earned it—her clothes appear on everyone from college school students experimenting with their style to First Lady Michelle Obama. Since being named to the [TIME 100 in 2013](http://time100.time.com/2013/04/18/time-100/slide/jenna-lyons/ "undefined"), Lyons has become an even more public face of the company, appearing in a recurring role on HBO’s _Girls_ and coming under criticism for amid declining sales numbers for the company. But she is focused on the job at hand: turning out new clothes that people will love each season, and showing shoppers how they can style them for maximal effect. “To me,” she says, “clothing is about a lifestyle and a wardrobe. That’s why I like working here, because it’s not about that _thing_, it’s about, ‘I’m only interested in the _thing_ next to the other _thing_.’ I don’t care about the earring; I care about the earring next to the jean jacket. I don’t care about the tee shirt, I care about the tee shirt with the jean jacket. I don’t think about things in a singular way, I care about the mix.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/shaping-our-future/4068507/jenna-lyons-j-crew/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/shaping-our-future/4068507/jenna-lyons-j-crew/"},"headline":"J. Crew's Jenna Lyons on How to Take Criticism","datePublished":"2015-10-09T19:50:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T11:54:13.666Z","description":"\"I don’t think about things in a singular way, I care about the mix\"","url":"https://time.com/collections/shaping-our-future/4068507/jenna-lyons-j-crew/","keywords":["Newsfeed","photography","Style","LightBox","Shaping Our Future"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt36486aeade566db1/698867b2cf40a8d5e3c4021c/lyons_1920_thumb.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Cubie King","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cubie-king/"}],"creator":"Sarah Begley","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt36486aeade566db1/698867b2cf40a8d5e3c4021c/lyons_1920_thumb.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/shaping-our-future/4068507/jenna-lyons-j-crew/","name":"J. Crew's Jenna Lyons on How to Take Criticism"}}]}] ```