Streetstyle icon: Jenna Lyons

She has been named one of the most influential fashion people over the last few years. Why? 1. As creative director and president she had no small part in upgrading J.Crew from preppy into a stylish go-to for guys of all ages. 2. She made quirkiness the new hipster (who can actually do that?!) 3. We obviously adore her immens wardrobe and every single piece of it. It’s a little bit offbeat yet very feminine and cool. 4. We really liked her part in GIRLS, as she very convincingly plays Hannah’s boss as GQ editor-in-chief. We want a boss like that too. 5. If we could switch for one day with someone else, it would be Jenna. For sure. If only so we could wear all her clothes and live permanently in NYC.

She’s called ‘the woman who dresses America’. For some pretty good reasons. One of her most -if not the most- clients is First Lady Michelle Obama. Yes, pretty impressive indeed. And it all started with the ‘cardigan-gate’ in April 2009 when Michelle Obama stepped out in a cream-coloured ‘crystal constellation’ cardigan and started a knitwear riot. That same day the cardigan had completely sold out online, caused an endless waiting list and there was only one question to be answered that same hour: “Who’s that brand?” The Answer: J.Crew. The woman who caused all this fuzz: Jenna.

Besides giving others an envious wardrobe, it isn’t any news that Jenna has enviable style herself too. Her signature ‘borrowed from the boys’ looks have been on our fashion radar ever since we first spotted her. If anyone knows how to dress for fashion week, its preppy-with-a-twist-queen Jenna. The trick is to find a balanced mixture between boyish and female and expensive and cheap. And don’t be to perfect, something she praises Lena Dunham for. “I think she’s one of the most courageous women in television today, partially because of that—and she takes a lot of hits for it, too. She looks beautiful, but you can see her skin and you can see that she’s human. That humanness is something that we’re always striving for with J. Crew”, she explains to Into The Gloss. Jenna knows all about imperfections, as she was born with incontinentia pigmenti, a genetic disorder that led to scarred skin, patchy hair, and lost teeth, requiring dentures as a kid.

Some Jenna facts: her wardrobe counts 300 pairs of shoes. She has so many clothes, she needs storage spaces to actually stow it away. One of her indulgences is good underwear (we feel you Jenna). She seems to have an insane collection of ice cream in her fridge (we want to be her best friend). About three years ago her famous Moscot Mensch glasses became unintentionally her signature look, as she needed new glasses and the woman at the store suggested these. She wanted to work in fashion because of her Vogue subscription and her grandma who gave her a sewing machine. And we can’t thank her enough for that.