Sarah Hand has quite the apparel industry pedigree.

She’s the daughter of the late Hartmarx chief executive officer Bert Hand, and over the course of her career has worked in Italy and Paris under designer Nino Cerruti, spent nearly a decade at Tommy Hilfiger and also held design roles at Nautica, Talbots and Bobby Jones Golf.

A year ago, Hand quietly joined Untuckit as creative director to drive the brand best known for its untucked men’s shirts into a complete lifestyle collection for both men and women. Her first full collection hits stores this week for spring.

“Sarah’s debut collection signals an intentional progression for Untuckit,” said Chris Riccobono, founder and executive chairman. “From the beginning, our mission has been to solve real-world wardrobe problems, and Sarah has elevated that purpose into a full lifestyle vision. This collection not only sharpens our product and storytelling, it reinforces our commitment to outfitting customers with confidence for every part of their day.”

Riccobono said Untuckit has always had a designer, and he himself had input into the offering. But as the company grew, he believed it was time to “push the envelope a little bit on the fashion side.”

He joked that he is a “creature of habit” who needed to “take myself out of it. I’m pretty straightforward and wouldn’t wear a lot of the stuff we have, but I’m not a fashion guy and that’s why we needed a change.”

Even so, he stressed that Hand’s debut collection doesn’t push the company into uncharted territory. “We’re pretty simplistic — we have some nice details and focus on fabrics and fit. Fit means everything to us. But we don’t want to go away from that polished casual look because our customers are the everyday guys across America.”

He said that while the spring collection has some fashion updates, it’s not trendy. Under Hand, the fabrics have been elevated and the aesthetic has been modernized, which Riccobono said he hopes will allow Untuckit to appeal to a new customer. “We have our loyal customers, but it’d be nice to reach some people who are looking for a little bit more trendy stuff.”

He said Untuckit appeals to guys from 25 to 70 who are attracted to the company’s wide assortment of shirts and complementary products. “We’re a company that sells black shirts in the middle of summer — it’s our number-one selling shirt — and we sell pink shirts. We make something for everyone: from denim to plaids to corduroys. We have our preppy Vineyard Vines-type colors and our Armani blacks. We have to do that because our demographics are so big.”

The goal is to also increase Untuckit’s standing with women. He said women’s represents a very small part of the overall business, but that is expected to change under Hand. “We’re going to lean into it,” he said. “We’re going to be putting it into our stores, which we’ve never done, so that’s part of the roadmap to grow.”

So is expanding into wholesale with the women’s line.

“We’ve had a lot of early success with women’s from a wholesale perspective,” Riccobono said. “They’re loving the wrinkle-free shirt we’re making.”

For both women’s and men’s, Hand made sure she was well versed in the brand’s DNA. ““At Untuckit, the brand has always been rooted in solving real wardrobe challenges,” she said. “That became my starting point. From there, it was about building a cohesive story, one that considers how people actually live today, how they move through their day, and how clothing can support that with both function and confidence.”

Hand has transitioned the company from a single-product focus to a collection-driven approach with complementary products for both genders.

The men’s offering is centered around three pillars: performance, casual and hybrid, while the women’s collection has been reimagined around three core silhouettes: a classic fit with a cleaner, more elevated shape; an oversize, boyfriend-inspired fit, and a cropped Untuckit fit. For the first time, wrinkle-free technology is also being offered in women’s product.

“What we’ve done successfully in men’s, we wanted to translate into women’s in a way that feels both authentic and forward-looking,” Hand added.

In a virtual walk-through of the collection, Hand said her starting point was to ascertain, “What’s the brand story, what’s the lifestyle story, what’s the product beyond the shirts? How can we really look at who our consumer is and build on that.”

Among the successes she sought to exploit were the company’s popular wrinkle-free and performance technologies, its distinct collar design, as well as its fit. “There’s a specific body fit you have with a shorter, untucked shape,” she said. “It’s not just about shortening the shirt. You really have to work on every aspect of the fit and measurement in order to make something that doesn’t look like a cut shirt.”

She also focused on offering more “weekend product,” she said. That included more washed and garment-dyed shirts as well as shirt jackets and pants that can help men transition between the office and their leisure activities.

In women’s, which is a much smaller collection of around 30 pieces, Hand started by offering a classic tailored fit in shirts as well as a more trendy silhouette with a relaxed fit and a drop shoulder along with the signature Untuckit model in solid colors, patterns and some “fun” designs. There are poplin skirts, blazers, a stretch twill chino, an Ultrasuede jacket and a range of shirtdresses.

“I’m not trying to lean into stuff that’s so classic you can get it at Polo or somewhere else,” she said. “There’s no room for that kind of thing. We do have our classic shirt, but there’s always been a little bit of fun in what we do since the inception of the brand.”

Untuckit was founded in 2011 after Riccobono became frustrated when he wasn’t able to find a shirt that looked good when it wasn’t tucked into his pants. So he approached his Columbia Business School classmate Aaron Sanandres with the idea of starting a business creating shirts for men that could be worn untucked. The business has since grow to have sales in excess of $200 million.

Riccobono said Untuckit’s business today continues to be strong, despite some “bumps in the road” as a result of macroeconomic issues such as the pandemic, tariffs, inflation and interest rates. Untuckit operates 89 of its own stores but has slowed the rollout due to the economic climate. But the company’s launch into wholesale has been “incredible” in its first eight months, he said, with retailers including Nordstrom, Macy’s, Von Maur, Amazon, Zappos, Stitch Fix and others picking up the line.

“That’s really exciting because it will allow us to really scale fast.”