J.Crew Opens Quietly in London

J Crew Group Inc. (New York) has slipped into the overseas retail market this week with a small menswear shop in central London.

The small store on Lambs Conduit Street in Bloomsbury precedes the opening of a flagship store on Regent Street due to open in early November, while a boutique womenswear outlet will open in Brompton Cross, west London.

But the Bloomsbury Store, on a trendy retail street of independent fashion and home furnishings stores, is intended to build brand awareness for Crew’s existing online operations in Britain, said chairman Millard Drexler. Also, Drexler just liked the street.

“It's like a stage set,” he said, “perfect for what we’re trying to do. We are trying not to do the big U.S. company coming to London. We want to be low-key.”

No further U.K. outlets have been signed to date. “We are seeing how it goes,” Drexler said. “There is a lot of demand [in the U.K.] from what we feel and see in online business.”