Gap Picks Design Chief for New Chain

Gap Inc., the nation’s largest specialty apparel retailer, has tapped a former Oscar de la Renta designer to head the design team for its new women’s apparel chain.

Austyn Zung, 36, was named senior vice president of design and product development for the brand, which will target baby boomers. Stores will begin opening next fall.

Zung will work alongside Gary Muto, the former Gap brand president who has been charged with launching the new stores, which haven’t yet been named.

The pair will work in the San Francisco-based retailer’s New York design center.

At Oscar de la Renta Ltd. in New York, Zung was vice president of design. Before that, she held senior design positions at men’s and women’s clothier J. Crew Group Inc. and with designer John Bartlett Unlimited, both based in New York.

Zung has “already been working with women who really know what they want in fashion,” Gap spokeswoman Kris Marubio said. “So based on that experience, she’ll be great at delivering design and fit based on what women in that group want.”

A spokeswoman for Oscar de la Renta wished Zung well, saying the New York designer was “very proud” of its former employee. “We just think she’s wonderful,” Alexandra Kimball said.

The parent of nearly 3,000 Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic stores announced last month that it would begin testing the new concept next year with as many as 10 stores. Tuesday’s announcement did little to shed light on how the new brand will develop.

The retailer has declined to reveal where the stores will open, except to say they will be in two geographic areas. Analysts have speculated that New York and San Francisco were likely locations.

In a report after the announcement, analyst Adrienne Tennant, who has a neutral rating on Gap stock, said it was too early to measure how successful the chain was likely to be.

Gap’s stock, which is down 15% this year, closed Tuesday at $19.78, up 5 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange.