The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited J.Crew to respond to allegations of child labor in its supply chain. The company did not respond, according to the organization; the supplied evidence does not detail the underlying allegations.
J. Crew did not respond to allegations of child labour in its supply chain
Days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, J.Crew Group CEO Libby Wadle said J.Crew and Madewell supported people whose bodily autonomy had been compromised. She acknowledged differing opinions, said the ruling posed risks, and said the company was considering legal options and prepared to use lawful means to assist employees needing travel for healthcare.
Days after the Supreme Court ruling, J. Crew Group CEO Libby Wadle took to LinkedIn to say that the company’s brands, J. Crew and Madewell, “stand in support of people everywhere who have had their right to bodily autonomy severely compromised by this decision.”
In 2010, Make the Road New York said matched-pair job tests at J.Crew’s Manhattan Fifth Avenue store showed two instances of discriminatory treatment toward transgender applicants. One applicant said he was treated brusquely and not called back, while his nontransgender testing partner was interviewed and offered a job. The group filed a complaint with the New York Attorney General.
The group says the preppy proprietor might as well post a "transgender people need not apply" sign on their door. They recently put the company's Manhattan retail store to the test, (along with 23 other retail stores), sending a transgender and a nontransgender to apply for jobs—with everything else (age, race, experience) matching on their resumes. The full results can be seen after the jump. The group's report "also found a 42 percent net rate of discrimination for transgender job applicants... [and] 49 percent of transgender workers surveyed reported that they have never been offered a job in the time that they have lived openly as transgender."
In a 2023 class-action complaint, three customers alleged J.Crew employees collected their contact details for electronic receipts and that they then received promotional emails with “alarming frequency.” The customers sought penalties and fines; the supplied report does not provide an outcome.
J. Crew Group LLC customers are accusing the fashion brand of coercing them to turn over contact information during in-store checkout and using it for marketing purposes.
In May 2018, J.Crew launched “Love first” Pride Month T-shirts and said 50% of the purchase price of a collection would go to the Human Rights Campaign. Actors Zosia Mamet and Evan Jonigkeit modeled the shirts. The report also noted criticism and support for an earlier feminist T-shirt.
J. Crew released two types of political T-shirts this week. One is a boy's shirt saying, "I am a feminist, too," and the other is a LGBTQ-friendly shirt for Pride Month reading, "Love first."
After an earlier settlement over J.Crew’s leveraged buyout collapsed, the company and its new owners, TPG and Leonard Green, agreed in September 2011 to pay $16 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit. The initial $10 million pact had fallen apart; the final payment included an additional $6 million.
J. Crew’s lawyers continue their obstreperous behavior in their letter. They state that J. Crew intends to “assert counter-claims and third-party claims for breach of contract against plaintiffs and the class, among others. Defendants will seek specific performance and money damages…” J. Crew and its buyers — the private equity firms TPG Capital and Leonard Greene & Partners and Millard S. Drexler, the retailer’s chairman and chief executive — have already arguably damaged their reputation because of their prior actions in this deal. The class that the J. Crew lawyers refer to here is J. Crew shareholders. Suing J. Crew shareholders is not going to make these buyers look any better nor is it going to win TPG or Leonard Green favor in future deals.
Despite the failure of that earlier settlement, J. Crew and its buyers agreed to honor some of the terms of that agreement, including extending a “go-shop” period that allowed the retailer to seek alternative bids and preventing its chief executive, Millard S. Drexler, from voting his holdings in favor of the TPG deal. TPG and Leonard Green had also agreed to lower the deal’s breakup fee and to waive their matching rights if a higher bid emerged.
J.Crew said an unauthorized party used credential stuffing to access customer accounts around April 2019; a spokesperson later said fewer than 10,000 U.S. customers were affected. The company said routine scanning found the improper access and customers were promptly notified, but the timing of detection and disclosure was unclear.
The spokesperson said “routine web scanning” detected the improper access and that customers were “promptly notified.” It’s not known when the scanning took place or why the account breaches weren’t detected sooner. Under the laws of both California and New York — where J.Crew is headquartered — there’s no specific time period under which a company must disclose a breach, only that customers are notified in “the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay.”
In 2018, J.Crew and sister brand Madewell added sizes 23 to 35 and introduced The Curvy Jean, featuring a contoured waistband.
This year, J. Crew and its sister brand Madewell have also offered more inclusive size options, adding sizes 23 to 35 and debuting The Curvy Jean with a contoured waistband.
A California class action filed in January 2023 alleges J.Crew misled J.Crew Factory customers into thinking they were buying mainline-quality clothing at a discount. J.Crew Group rejected the allegations as meritless and said it would defend itself. Plaintiffs seek changes to marketing practices; the report describes the suit’s value as $5 million or more.
A class action lawsuit filed in January in California Superior Court that was kicked up to the U.S. District Court of Northern California accuses J. Crew (JC) of misleading customers of its J. Crew Factory (JCF) brand into believing they are getting the same quality of clothing as the original J. Crew line at a discounted price.
In August 2025, observers said images in J.Crew’s Vans collaboration campaign appeared AI-generated, citing visual glitches; critics also worried about paid creative work being displaced. J.Crew updated Instagram captions to credit digital artist Sam Finn Studio, but the captions did not clarify whether the images depicted AI models. The company said it was experimenting with creative forms and mediums.
It seems the AI model that shimmied her way into the pages of Vogue last month has referred her friends from the Uncanny Valley to J.Crew. On Tuesday morning, popular style Substack Blackbird Spyplane published an investigation into a series of nostalgic images recently posted to J.Crew’s Instagram page. The posts, which hawked a collaboration with Vans, appear normal at first glance, in line with the brand’s classic ’80s prepster imagery memorialized on well-known accounts like lostjcrew. But upon further inspection, the folks over at Blackbird identified several quirks that suggest the campaign photos are actually AI-generated.
OpenSecrets attributes $61,668 in 2020-cycle contributions and $22,137 in 2024-cycle contributions to individuals—not the organization itself—including employees, owners, members and immediate family. Contributions went to candidates, party committees and other groups. OpenSecrets reported no federal lobbying or outside spending by J.Crew Group in either cycle.
A September 2011 report said J.Crew Group CEO Millard Drexler had made almost $200,000 in political contributions since 2008, according to records. He was identified among the backers of Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’s call for business leaders to pause political donations.
His backers include the chief executives of AOL and JCPenney, along with the heads of dozens of smaller businesses. Only a few have been major campaign donors: J. Crew Group CEO Millard Drexler has made almost $200,000 in political contributions since 2008, records show.