True Religion’s latest hire reflects its mission to grow its women’s business. The Y2K brand on Wednesday said it appointed Tina Blake as senior vice president, women’s design and brand image.
In this newly created role, Blake will oversee all women’s product, lead women’s initiatives and create a consistent brand identity across True Religion’s women’s business, including marketing, advertising, customer communications, social media, e-commerce and retail stores.
She will work closely with Zihaad Wells, True Religion creative director, and will report to Michael Buckley, True Religion’s long-time CEO.
Blake’s appointment is a key component of True Religion’s expanded women’s merchandise strategy to drive incremental revenue and new customer acquisition. The strategy includes relaunching True Religion’s core denim collection for women and offering a more robust assortment of styles across a wider range of washes, silhouettes and plus sizes.
The 20-year-old brand will also pursue more collaborations with female artists and influencers, such as its recently launched collaboration with musician Dreezy. The 10-piece line includes new products like a cropped Trucker and straight-fit jeans decorated with diamond motifs and repurposed styles such as a cargo midi skirt and stacked jeans.
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In June, the brand inked a licensing agreement with Amiee Lynn to design women’s belts. Another deal with Concept One Accessories and Capelli/Ballet, divisions of GMA Group, gets True Religion into cold-weather accessories, fashion headwear, jewelry, handbags, small leather goods and hair accessories.
“Tina’s proven track record of growing women’s businesses over the past 15 years makes her the perfect leader to help take True Religion’s women’s business to the next level,” Buckley said. “Our goal over the next three years is to increase women’s sales from the 35 percent it is today to being on par with men’s at 50 percent of the business. We have a legion of loyal women’s consumers and are very excited to fuel growth in this category.”
Blake joins True Religion from Fabletics owner Techstyle Fashion Group where she managed design, product development, and technical design teams for JustFab and ShoeDazzle brands in North America and Europe as vice president, design and operations for global fashion brands. Prior to joining Techstyle, Blake was at Guess, Inc. for seven years, where she started as a senior designer, young contemporary before being promoted to director of design in the same division. Earlier in her career, she was a designer for Rip Curl USA.
“I’m thrilled to join True Religion at this extremely exciting moment in its history,” Blake said. “It will be exciting to work with such a talented team on one of the most iconic names in fashion as we take the women’s category to a whole new level.”