Karen Millen appoints Tracey Stainer as its new creative design director

London - High street fashion brand Karen Millen has named Tracey Stainer to the newly created role of creative design director.

Stainer, who currently works at L.K Bennett as their ready-to-wear product director, is set to officially join the team at Karen Millen this spring. She joined the team at the British womenswear brand in late 2012 from fellow high street label French Connection, where she served as womenswear design director for 13 years.

Her appointment at Karen Millen comes six months after Karen Millen's former Chief Creative Officer, Gemma Metheringham, left her role to take up a new role at her former employer, Next, as the Creative Director of its in-house Label division.

"We’re absolutely delighted Tracey is joining Karen Millen as Creative Design Director, bringing a proven track record of developing collections that build strong brand through real customer focus," said Beth Butterwick, CEO of Karen Millen in a statement.

However, Stainer will not act as a direct successor for Metheringham in her new role at Karen Millen, as the company has restructured its internal teams under the leadership of its new Chief Executive Officer, Beth Butterwick, who joined the team from Bonmarché last August. The newly created role of Creative Design Director will see Stainer led Karen Millen's design teams and reporting directly to Butterwick.

"Karen Millen is a Design-led business with high-quality craftsmanship behind every piece we create, so we’re thrilled someone of Tracey’s calibre will be leading our design team as we focus on growing our global business and our understanding of local market needs," added Butterwick.

Photos: Karen Millen AW16 collection, Courtesy of Karen Millen