J.Crew

Popular Merchandise, Inc. is founded by Mitchell Cinader and Saul Charles to sell low-priced women's clothing through in-home demonstrations. Company changes its name to J. Crew Group, Inc. The first J. Crew retail outlet opens; deal to sell Popular Club Plan falls through. Through a joint venture, J. Crew retail stores begin appearing in Japan. J. Crew Group, Inc. markets several lines of casual men's and women's clothing through distinctive catalogs, a chain of retail stores, and the company web site. Each year the company issues 24 editions of the J. Crew catalog, distributing more than 80 million copies. Its retail stores include 127 units in the United States, 45 of which are factory outlets, and 76 locations in Japan, which are operated under license by ITOCHU Corporation. J. Crew Group was owned by the Cinader family for most of its existence, but in October 1997 investment firm Texas Pacific Group Inc. purchased a majority stake in the firm. By the year 2000, Texas Pacific held an approximate 62 percent stake, a group of J. Crew managers held about ten percent, and Emily Woods, the chairman of J. Crew and founder of the J. Crew brand along with her father, Arthur Cinader, held most of the remainder. Popular Merchandise, Inc., doing business as Popular Club Plan, was founded in 1947 by Mitchell Cinader and Saul Charles to sell low-priced women's clothing through in-home demonstrations. By the early 1980s, the owners of Popular Club Plan (which was by then under the direction of Mitchell Cinader's son, Arthur) watched as catalog retailers of clothing, including Lands' End, Talbots, and L.L. Bean, reported booming sales. In an effort to duplicate the success of these companies, Popular Club Plan initiated its own catalog operation. The company focused on leisurewear for upper-middle-class customers, aiming for a Ralph Lauren look at a much lower price. Accordingly, Popular Club situated its merchandise in the niche between Ralph Lauren, on the high end, and the Limited, on the lower end. In an effort to connote a 'preppy' spirit, Popular Club Plan dubbed this operation 'J. Crew.' The first J. Crew catalog was mailed to customers in January 1983. Instrumental in orchestrating the J. Crew look was Arthur Cinader's daughter Emily Cinader (later Woods), who joined the company after graduating from college. Over the next several years, J. Crew's catalog evolved a distinctive look featuring young, attractive models having fun in a variety of appealing settings. The pictures in the catalog appeared to be photographs from a house party of old friends, all of whom happened to be gorgeous and outfitted by J. Crew. Their catalogs often showed the same garment in more than one picture, worn by different models and coordinated with other products. As a result, customers could get a sense of how the garment looked on the body, how it hung and draped, and how it could be used with various items of clothing. In addition, J. Crew included close-up shots of the fabrics from which its products were made, helping to validate its claims of quality. J. Crew closely controlled the production of its catalog, selecting images from more than 8,000 rolls of film shot each year and having all catalog copy written in-house. Catalogs with more than 100 glossy pages were mailed to customers 14 times a year. The company also maintained an in-house design staff to develop its products and carefully controlled the manufacturing process, hiring factories to produce garments to its specifications. With the success of its first catalog operation, J. Crew launched a second catalog program in 1985. Dubbed 'Clifford & Wills,' this operation sold women's clothing that was more affordable than the J. Crew line. In 1986 Emily Cinader was promoted to president of the J. Crew operation. Despite the phenomenal success of J. Crew, and the prominent profile that the J. Crew catalog soon attained, internal management of the company was less than smooth. Both Ci