Fran Horowitz

Fran Horowitz has done what most people would have once thought impossible: The CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch has revived a mall-based, youth-focused apparel company and turned it into one of the hottest retailers around, with a stock performance that would make any newly public tech unicorn envious. The parent company’s shares have risen 12-fold since Horowitz took the reins in 2017. Her secret sauce: focusing the company’s two core brands on what makes them distinct. The flagship A&F brand and sister label Hollister were virtually indistinguishable when she started, she told Fortune in 2022. So Horowitz set about creating more distance between what each represents in customers’ minds and worked on restoring quality that she said had fallen to a “heartbreaking” level. That allowed A&F to age up from teens and offer young adults clothes they could wear on weekends. Meanwhile, Hollister moved beyond its surfer roots to become a brand for teens craving adventure. All the while, Horowitz’s team built a robust e- commerce business, which now accounts for 50% of sales, and exited countless dying malls to focus on fewer stores in better locations. After years in retail purgatory, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. revenues in 2022 rebounded to 2014 levels. With both brands restored to solid footing, Horowitz launched new initiatives such as an activewear line at A&F called Your Personal Best in 2022, and a wedding business this year. With sales up 21% last quarter, A&F’s comeback story is undeniably still going strong.