Dive Brief:

• Abercrombie & Fitch has named former Lucky magazine creative director Katia Kuethe to be the retailer's creative director of marketing.

• Kuethe also spent time at Kate Spade as senior director of creative.

• The hire rounds out a newly emerging creative team at the retailer, including former Club Monaco men's designer Aaron Levine, former Club Monaco senior director of men’s merchandising Kurt Hoffman, and, for Hollister Girls, former Lucky (the brand not the magazine) SVP of design Lisa Lowman.

Dive Insight:

Abercrombie is not kidding when it says it’s working on elevating its brand, which has been flat-footed for years. This team in design and merchandising portends much-needed change for the retailer, which has been largely abandoned by young fashionistas who are finding less expensive, more pleasing apparel elsewhere.

"As we have previously announced, we have some work underway to help us restore our brands to a higher level of esteem," company spokesperson Michael Scheiner said of the new hires, in an email to Fashionista.