MEETING MY IDOL: JENNA LYONS

Katy Jenna Lyons

Earlier in November, I pretty much achieved one of the pinnacles of my dreams...which was to come FACE TO FACE with my ultimate style icon and bad ass hero boss, Jenna Lyons - creative director AND president of J.Crew.

She was visiting her Toronto flagship store on Bloor and was doing a short Q&A that evening. In my head, I assumed she was going to breeze into the store quickly - do a quick Q&A session, take some obligatory photos and then breeze right back into her town car. I had no disillusions I would even have the opportunity to talk to her. Just breathing the same air she was and being in such close proximity was good enough for me!

To my genuine surprise and delight, Jenna Lyons is LOVELY. She's also super down to earth, personable, and I'm even more obsessed with her than I was before! After her Q&A, she went to the back of the room to visit the photobooth. Well - I promptly got into line with my friends I went with and was reverberating at the chance that we might get a photo with her!

There were 3 of us including myself - so we quickly strategized who was going to sit where. My old roomie called dibs on her right side so I promptly called dibs on her left. Her other friend she invited was totally cool with not being directly beside her. However when it was finally our turn to take our photo and I promptly marched to her left side - she said, "Oh no! I don't think this photobooth can accommodate taking 4 people, it's not wide enough!"

I jumped up thinking it was no big deal, "Oh that's OK! You guys go ahead and take this pic and I'll just wait my turn for the next one!" and stood up to step aside. That's when things got REAL.

She PULLED me down and said "No way! We'll make it work," and then put me on her lap!  My mind may have momentarily blacked out for a second, but the next thing you know I realize I'm sitting in her lap and she wraps her arm around me like a baby and says, "SMILE!"  In my head, I thought "Please don't ever let me go..." but alas, our moment was fleeting and then it was over. I promptly got off her lap, turned around and said, "Thank you SO much... I'm having a real moment right now," and then I walked away still in a state of shock.

What a lady!!