News that J. Crew president Jenna Lyons, who so often posted beautiful family snapshots with the world in her Jenna’s Picks feature on the J. Crew website, was getting a divorce is drawing lots of media attention. Unfortunately, its not all sympathy for the down to Earth fashion executive, who last attracted undue attention by painting her toddler son’s toe nails pink.
The prying eyes fixated on Lyons’ troubles seem to have been drawn by whispers that her divorce is related to an extra marital affair on Lyons’ part with another woman. Intriguingly, though rumors of a lesbian relationship are clearly spicing up what is otherwise just another sad story of American divorce, the wave of stories about Jenna painting her son’s toenails, or Toemagedon, as Jon Stewart dubbed it, drew more homophobia than her rumored affair. The lesbian angle seems to be adding melodrama, but not much else. The fact that Lyons’ rumored lover is also supposedly a fashion industry insider seems to be steamier gossip than the fact that that lover is a woman.
While a few headlines, like the U.K. Daily Mail Online, highlighted the pink toenail painter turns out to be a lesbian connection, even that article ended up quoting blogs and comments that highlight Lyons’ biggest asset as a fashion icon – everyone likes her. She’s built up the so called cult of J. Crew around this general feeling that, as one blogger put it, “the more you know about Jenna Lyons, the more you wish she was your best friend.” Or at least, the more you want to buy the clothes she’s selling.
