J Crew’s Mickey Drexler on the elephant lurking in the luxury industry room

Financo – a New York-based boutique investment bank that specializes in consumer retail – held a seminar yesterday with a CEO panel that showcased some of fashion’s most successful kingpins. Coach chief executive Lew Frankfort gave his two cents to the assembled suits, as did Juicy Couture and VF CEOs Paul Blum and Eric Wiseman, plus hospitality supremo Danny Meyer.

But the most vocal man in the room by far – J Crew’s chief executive Mickey Drexler – wasn’t sitting on the stage.

In a rather unexpected (and uninvited) twist at the tail end of an otherwise predictable dissection of retail strategy, lifestyle brands and the importance of the emerging markets, Mr Drexler sensationally hijacked the discussion from the floor, to the acute embarrassment of Financo’s head honcho Gilbert Harrison.