Everlane Snapped Up Gap's Ousted Creative Director

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Gap's former creative director Rebekka Bay has signed on with Everlane, a clothing start-up based out of San Francisco. Business of Fashion reports that Bay will begin her new position as creative director beginning on August 4th. Everlane's current creative director, Petra Langerova (who also came from Gap) will stay on in an advisory role.

Although Everlane is a tiny operation compared to Gap, the move makes sense from a design point of view. Bay made her name for herself at H&M, where she developed and designed the super-minimalistic Cos brand. The aesthetic didn't sell as well at Gap; she held the position of creative director for just under three years before she was let go and the role itself was cut from the company.

At Everlane, Bay will be tasked with scaling the brand's design operations. According to Business of Fashion, Bay's designs will start filtering into Everlane's product offerings within the next six months, although her new direction won't be completely visible until about 12 to 18 months from her start date.

The brand did $12 million in sales in 2013, and Michael Preysman, Everlane's founder and CEO, says that sales have doubled in the past year. There are no plans to build out physical Everlane stores or find more funding (to date, the company has raised $9 million).

"I'm excited to be with a smaller brand, a smaller team, and to be touching the product more," Bay told Business of Fashion. "It's a new way of working, a new way of bringing product to market. This feels like a bigger challenge. But I've never taken on the same challenge twice."