101 North Magazine

The Real Deal

Jennifer Croll Not Just a Name

June 2005; by Rebecca Larsen

Blue Cult jeans, camisoles trimmed in embroidery, lace and feathers, pastel striped pants by Nanette Lepore, dresses and even white satin possibilities for the bride.

It's all part of the mix at Jennifer Croll/Croll Sport in Kierland Commons, where a good section of the store is also devoted to pants and shirts for men.

If you're ever shopped in the store, you've probably wondered if Jennifer Croll is a real person.

Well, the real Jennifer Croll exists and is co-owner of not just that popular store, but four others - Croll Blue in DC Ranch and also stores in Newport Beach, Dallas and one one Union Street in San Francisco. More stores are on the way - probably in Old Town Scottsdale and Hermosa Beach,
California.

Croll and husband Cristian moved to Scottsdale four years ago from San Francisco to live at DC Ranch. "My husband and I had decided that when we had kids and wanted to settle down, we'd move. We thought about Los Gatos (California) where I grew up, but we both love golf, and we wanted a country club situation. We came out here and fell in love with it."

Retail is in Croll's genes. Her mother had a bed-linen store in Los Gatos for many years. "But I wasn't thinking about going into retail," she says. "I studied international relations at USC. But I helped my mother so I had a lot of experience and I had always been a boutique shopper."

After college, when she went back to Los Gatos, she met her husband and together in 1994, they opened their first boutique - a women's store in Los Gatos largely devoted to dresses. Jennifer was only 25 at the time. "Our customers asked us if we'd do men's wear and would we do more casual clothes. We still do some dresses, but now we're more into casual wear."

After their stores took off, husband Cristian Croll quit another job to become the CFO for the operation and the men's wear buyer. "I love being in business with my husband," she says. "He's fantastic, and I couldn't do it without him."

A key to their success in Scottsdale was picking the Kierland location back when Kierland was first getting started. "We wanted and area with a downtown feeling," Jennifer Croll says. "We didn't want a mall-strip center area. We wanted a place with a mix of restaurants and shops."

The Croll stores' merchandise a high-end and savvy, designed to blend city fashion with a sensible, casual lifestyles. It's not impossible here to pay in the hundreds for pants or tops. Croll shoppers are of all ages, says Jennifer, "high school girls to 70 year olds."