Gayot had spent seven years at the brand—under then-executive creative director and now Real Housewife of New York Jenna Lyons—before a three-year stint at Victoria’s Secret. In late 2020, she returned as J.Crew’s director of womenswear and began posting near-daily selfies of her head-to-toe J.Crew ‘fits: laid-back, accessibly chic, sophisticated and menswear-influenced looks that earned her a fervent fashion following. Consumers began noticing a shift in J.Crew’s offerings: extended sizes, higher quality fabrics and construction, plus an “Olympia’s Picks” section on the site.

Now, Gayot’s been crowned the “Queen of Chic” on TikTok, with over 1.5 million views of the “Olympia Gayot” hashtag. The J.Crew brand, which just celebrated its 40th anniversary last September, has experienced somewhat of a renaissance—and many like to credit Gayot with the about-face. But speaking to Harper’s Bazaar in 2023, she insisted she’s just focused on the job at hand: “There’s a lot of people who don’t know who I am, and that’s fine too,” Gayot says. “And they’re actually buying the clothes because they’re just like, ‘Oh, something’s changed,’ and they’re noticing a shift regardless.”