Public Clothing Co.’s Generra brand has appointed designer Swaim Hutson to the post of creative director.
Hutson, co-founder of the shuttered Obedient Sons & Daughters, was a consultant on Generra’s spring collection.
The collection was marketed this week in Las Vegas, and included such items as a sleeveless blazer.
“My perception of Generra is and always has been that the brand carries understated confidence,” said Hutson. “Generra has a chance and a voice to be more directional within the designer contemporary market, and this is exactly what I hope to bring to the brand.”
He is Generra’s first creative director since late 2007, when Pina Ferlisi departed for Coach. He will oversee product design as well as collection development.
“He shares the brand’s vision and well-matching design aesthetic,” said Dan Shamdassani, chief executive officer of Public Clothing.
Generra, a contemporary women’s and men’s sportswear brand that peaked in the Eighties, is sold in about 250 doors.
Generra is preparing to present its spring collections during New York Fashion Week. In the same week, it will open its first U.S. store, on Washington Street in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. Shamdassani has made international expansion a top priority, having established some retail units in Japan.
Obedient Sons & Daughters, a his-and-hers collection steeped in American 20th-century history, was founded by Hutson and his wife, Christina. It closed last year.