Five Questions

It’s often said you never know whom you might meet on the Gulfshore. Such is the case with Jeffrey Pfeifle.

With strong ties to the area that date back decades, it’s little wonder that he recently opened a J.Crew at-the-beach boutique at Waterside Shops in Naples, his winter stomping grounds. That the company is in a position to extend its brand into resort-fashion boutiques is a tribute to the masterful turnaround effort engineered by Pfeifle and his boss, J.Crew CEO Mickey Drexler. The pair saved a foundering company and are well on their way to returning the J.Crew name to its former fashion prominence.

What differentiates the Naples boutique from other J.Crew stores?
Every item [for each boutique]—and this is the honest truth—is hand-selected just for that store. We have two of them right now; one is in East Hampton on Long Island and the other is in Naples.

What are some pieces that customers can find in the Naples location?
We have our famous Italian cashmere and beach collection, tailor-made for the Naples location. We also just started a new part of our business, and that’s jewelry for women, which is really outstanding stuff.

When you say "tailor-made for the Naples location," who is doing that and how?
Our design team travels the entire world. For a summer collection they’ll go to Capri. They’ll go to Saint-Tropez just to see what people are wearing and get some inspiration and bring it back and translate it to their own ideas. Our team also travels to the European fabric mills like Ratti, a place that’s famous for prints around the world.

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