Olympia Gayot Makes Motherhood Look Good

When J.Crew asked their former womenswear designer, Olympia Gayot, to return as creative director in 2020, the circumstances were anything but typical. It was during the pandemic, offices everywhere were dark and deserted, and Gayot was pregnant with her second child. “It was intense,” she says. “I came to work every day, designing collections with this tiny, masked crew who just knew we had to make it happen. But I also knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and that in my heart, I wanted it.”

Her return to the brand, where she had spent seven years before departing in 2017, wasn’t just a good professional move, it has become a central part of Gayot’s creative identity. Charged with putting J.Crew back on the fashion map, she turned the role into a chance to design for women like herself—juggling work, life, and motherhood. “There’s so much creativity coming from women, especially mothers,” she says. “If I can spotlight even one of them personally or through the brand, I will.”

There’s so much creativity coming from women, especially mothers.

During her half-decade at the helm, Gayot has done just that. Recent collaborators include Maryam Nassir Zadeh, Anna October, Paula Mendoza, and artists Katherine Bernhardt and Cassi Namoda. She’s extended that same spirit to J.Crew’s recent Style for Generations campaign, pairing longtime J.Crew icon and supermodel Liya Kebede with her teenage daughter Raee.

While Gayot is widely recognized for her effortlessly polished work style—often captured on Instagram from her cloud‑framed downtown Manhattan office—she never toggles motherhood off when she walks into J.Crew’s headquarters or leaves her creativity at the desk when she heads home. The two roles weave together how she thinks, designs, and leads. Her sons, Aalto, 4, and Ulysses, 9, even offer some handy design notes. "'The sweatshirt has no pockets,’ Ulysses once pointed out to me,” Gayot says. “‘You can’t make a sweatshirt without pockets,’ and I was like, You're right. That's a really good point.”

Moments like these are a reminder that being a mom isn't an interruption to her work—it's where many of her best ideas actually begin. Motherhood, Gayot explains, acts as "a stabilizer,” and “balance is a daily practice.” She traces her instincts to champion women who juggle career goals and motherhood back to her own upbringing in Canada, where a career-driven mom and a hands-on dad modeled how ambition and family can coexist and thrive together. “My parents were loving and supportive and pushed me to follow my dreams,” she says.

There's no way out but through—you just have to keep going.

And it’s not just that Gayot is honoring women and mothers with her approach to design—she’s finding inspiration from them. "I have so many friends who are working moms doing the same thing as me. It feels like at this stage, we're all trying to have careers at the same time we're having kids, and everything just happens at once. There's no way out but through—you just have to keep going,” she says. "My friends are right there on the ground with me. I'm so proud of them, seeing how they're raising great kids. We’re all figuring it out together."

In the end, Gayot’s true legacy may even eclipse the viral lady jackets and cult-following array of cashmere crewnecks from this era at J.Crew. Her real mark is the proof that dreaming up something big doesn’t have to succumb to the demands of motherhood—they can, and often do, take shape because of them.

The Motherhood Issue

Sara Holzman is the Style Director at Marie Claire, where she has worked in various roles to ensure the brand's fashion content continues to inform, inspire, and shape the conversation around fashion's ever-evolving landscape. A Missouri School of Journalism graduate, she previously held fashion posts at Condé Nast’s Lucky and Self and covered style and travel for Equinox’s Furthermore blog. Over a decade in the industry, she’s guided shoots with top photographers and stylists from concept to cover. Based in NYC, Sara spends off-duty hours running, browsing the farmer's market, making a roast chicken, and hanging with her husband, dog, and cat. Find her on Instagram at @sarajonewyork.