Maggie Bullock, who wrote a book on J. Crew, reported that when the Fast Company issue was released, a senior company executive (not Mr. Drexler, who denied knowledge of these events) “sent a team of employees to scooping up any problem they could find, “to lessen the impact of the story.”
Yet neither J. Crew nor Ms. Lyons have reached the same heady heights of relevance over the past five years that they had reached together. (She appeared in three episodes of “Girls.” Beyoncé attended J. Crew’s first presentation at New York Fashion Week.)
Ms. Lyons has filled her days ever since with performances: brand collaborations (jewellery, furniture, lipsticks), board appointments, and a few interior design jobs. In 2018, she announced a partnership with Turner Entertainment that brought her a season-long show, ‘Stylish With Jenna Lyons’. She joined Instagram in 2020 and in her first month posted photos of her dog Popeye, some censored nudes, and herself getting a lice treatment. After she founded LoveSeen that year, inspired by her own lack of lashes, her career took on a new lease of life, but not to the extent she had hoped. “My star isn’t big enough to support this brand alone,” she said.
Ms. Bullock was still working on her book “The Kingdom of Prep” when the surprise “Housewives” announcement came. It seemed logical to her that Mrs. Lyons was spinning. After being “as central to the fashion conversation” as the designer at J. Crew, “how do you go back to anonymity?” she said.
But for Ms. Lyons’ ex-colleagues, “joining this other team was kind of unthinkable,” said Ms. Bullock. “People who had worked with her in the past said, ‘Is she on some sort of mental break?'”
There are famous fashion people, like Ms. Lyons, and then there are famous reality stars, like Bethenny Frankel, NeNe Leakes, or Lisa Vanderpump. They each have over three million followers on Instagram; Mrs. Lyons has about 275,000. She clearly recalls some advice Mr. Cohen gave when discussing the role: “’All I can say is you can’t hide. Once you’re on the show, there’s no hiding.’”