J. Crew Chief to Join Warby Parker's Board As Warby Parker continues its big push into retail, the three-year-old start-up is adding a top merchant mogul to its board. Warby Parker, the purveyor of fashionable eyeglasses, plans to announce on Tuesday that it has named Millard S. Drexler, the chief executive of J. Crew, as a director. He will become Warby Parker's seventh board member, joining the company's four founders and representatives from the investment firms Tiger Global Management and General Catalyst Partners. The addition of Mr. Drexler formalizes what Warby Parker executives have described as a burgeoning mentor role as the company moves beyond its origins as an online retailer. Mr. Drexler has already invested in the company as part of a $41.5 million financing round that closed earlier this year. Warby Parker is Mr. Drexler's third directorship; he already sits on the boards of J. Crew and Apple. "I am excited to join the Warby Parker board," Mr. Drexler said in a statement. Referring to the company's co-chief executives, Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa, he added, "I like and respect Neil and Dave and love what they have created with Warby Parker - they have completely reinvented the eyewear business." Though Mr. Drexler had already been having regular lunches with Warby Parker's management, the company's executives sought in recent weeks to bring him deeper into the business. In particular, they sought his advice as they continue to open new stores and showrooms across the country. "We're growing really rapidly and developing a major retail strategy," Mr. Blumenthal said in a phone interview. "We thought, "Wouldn't it be great to have him in the boardroom for these major decisions?"" Mr. Drexler, whose successes at Gap and then J. Crew have made him a guru of retailing, has increasingly lent his insights and famous attention to detail to Warby Parker's development. At his first meeting with the company's executives two years ago, he emphatically told Mr. Blumenthal and Mr. Gilboa that they needed a physical store to complement their Web site. There are now five stores and 10 showrooms across the country. During one visit to Warby Parker's flagship store in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood, Mr. Drexler looked up at an electronic sign - patterned after an old-fashioned train station fixture - meant to display coming eye exam appointments. At the end of the day, the sign began growing blank as the day's bookings were completed. According to Mr. Blumenthal, the J. Crew chief said that the board could suggest that business was slow. Were Warby Parker a publicly traded company, Mr. Drexler argued, an analyst might use that to suggest that the store wasn't nearly full. The next day, the board was revised so that at the end of the day it began showing the next day's appointment and never appeared blank. "He's shown that details matter," Mr. Blumenthal said. "He's aware of all those little details that at first may seem insignificant but have drastic impact on customers" perceptions." Mr. Drexler has also contributed to management's thinking about its products. The company has rolled out more than a dozen collections of eyewear, whereas most optical designers do one a year, and bolsters its presence through a burgeoning TV presence. Last month, Warby Parker rolled out its second TV commercial, an ode to the company's deliberately quirky vibe. One thing that Warby Parker isn't considering yet is putting its eyeglasses in other shops, like J. Crew. Having its own stores means that the company can better control its customer experience while reaping higher sales margins, Mr. Blumenthal said. While the company is adding boldfaced names to its board, it is far from considering even bigger steps, like an initial public offering or a sale, Mr. Blumenthal said. The company still has a large cash position and enormous growth with no plans to raise additional capital at the moment. "We're only three years old," he said. We're not really even thinking about going public. There is one other milestone that Warby Parker has yet to reach: getting Mr. Drexler to switch from his well-known plastic spectacles for a pair of the company's glasses. "We haven't converted him yet," Mr. Blumenthal said. We'll see if we can.