You know Jenna Lyons as the former president of J.Crew who became known as the “woman who dresses America” thanks to her recognizable sense of style. Jenna doesn’t just mix high and low pieces, she proves that fancy has its place next to casual and/or funky if you want it to. Her outfits have always inspired us to reimagine our closets, selecting clothes we haven’t visited in years because they might look really great with some fresh denim and a pair of heels. Jenna has an air of effortlessness about her that became synonymous with the J.Crew brand – her look embodies sophisticated cool, or, perhaps in J.Crew terms, relaxed prep. While Jenna left J.Crew in April 2017, she’s fine-tuning her own business and doing it in the public eye with the release of HBO Max’s Stylish With Jenna Lyons, a documentary-slash-reality competition.
“My biggest hope is to peel away the premise of rules in fashion, home, and/or beauty. Everyone has the right and the access; rules just don’t apply.”
Season one, which begins streaming on Dec. 3, takes us through a handful of design projects that delve into the home and beauty spheres. We see Jenna tackle renovations, makeovers, and the launch of her beauty line, LoveSeen. The kicker? Jenna’s showing us the ins and outs of her industry by hosting weekly competitions with aspiring artists and creatives. Each project introduces us (the viewer) and her current team (including Kyle DeFord, the chief of staff at Lyons L.A.D., and stylist Sarah Clary) to associates interested in joining Jenna’s staff – for longer than the length of just one episode. Can you imagine the honor? With that, we get to see how Jenna and Kyle interview candidates and choose the right people for carrying out Jenna’s vision.
We chatted with Jenna about the show and also asked her to look back on her J.Crew days. As for the future, well, we just had to know how Lyons sees her role changing down the line. Will she always be the “woman who dresses America”? “I think that somehow along the way, there became this idea that there were rules. Rules get people in a place where they feel they can or can’t, should or shouldn’t. My biggest hope is to peel away the premise of rules in fashion, home, and/or beauty. Everyone has the right and the access; rules just don’t apply,” Jenna told POPSUGAR. We really like the sound of that. Keep reading to find out more about what she has in store – or, in the case of her favorite J.Crew piece from high school, storage.
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