J.Crew’s CEO Wants Its Clothes to Regain American Cultural Clout

“Guys, I want a little bit more dimensionality,” Libby Wadle says as she eyes a mock-up for J.Crew’s fall store displays. The setup being workshopped at the company’s headquarters on the southern tip of Manhattan drips with soft maroons and a bracing chartreuse—the color of Wadle’s own organza wrap skirt—that reads like the cool older sister to last year’s ubiquitous Brat green. Her solution: The arrangement could benefit from a print. “Something that’s a little bit more dynamic up front,” Wadle instructs the buzzing design team before hustling to the adjacent studio of sister brand Madewell, differentiated in part by ...