LONDON, United Kingdom — Munich-based luxury fashion e-tailer Mytheresa.com has appointed Paula Reed as creative director, effective immediately. Reed, who has a unique background in both editorial and multi-channel retailing, was instrumental to the successful launch of weekly magazine Grazia UK, where she was style director for seven years before departing to take up the position of fashion director at upscale London department store Harvey Nichols in 2012. In her new role, Reed will oversee editorial direction and help expand Mytheresa's "special projects" with designers and brands.

“My first role is kind of as an agitator a bit — to suggest things they haven’t even thought of before, things that come very naturally to me as somebody with magazine experience: ways of presenting things, ways of introducing designers, and ways of actually introducing customers to newness; ways of supporting partners we do business with through events and editorial projects, ways of supporting new brands that we’re bringing on,” Reed told BoF.

Despite her editorial background, Reed stressed that she was not brought on to significantly scale up the site’s content offering. “It’s not like they’ve taken on a magazine person to create a magazine,” she said. Instead, refreshing the look and feel of the website will be her first order of business, as well as redefining its editorial voice.

Mytheresa.com has worked with brands like Victoria Beckham and Valentino to offer exclusive products and stage experiential trunk show-cum-dinners with its customers, something Reed intends to expand. "They are seeing massive success in taking merchandise personally to the customer and introducing designers and exciting players in the industry directly," said Reed, "Kind of establishing that global footprint not just as a trader, but also as somebody that can provide human contact as well…. What we are really concerned about is how to create that personal touch, which is so important in luxury. All of those things that people take for granted with a brick-and-mortar store … and finding ways through events to bring that to customers from all over the world."

“Paula’s extensive experience across many fields of fashion including retail, journalism, style direction and editorial will make her a great addition to the Mytheresa.com team,” said founder Susanne Botschen in a statement.

Launched in 2006, Mytheresa.com grew out of a longstanding brick-and-mortar store, Theresa, which was the first in Germany to offer brands like Prada over 25 years ago. Although the two are separate business entities, they are both still majority owned by founders Susanne and Christoph Botschen, who established the company at the high end of the market.

“We can be amazed at the range of product a lot of these other e-commerce sites, which are covering the waterfront,” said Reed. “But Mytheresa.com is really particular in that it will focus and specialise in the finest luxury ever. We’re not covering all price ranges; it is very specifically luxury fashion.”

Acton Capital Partners acquired a minority stake in Mytheresa.com in 2010 for an undisclosed amount. For the most recent fiscal year, the company's revenue reached €44 million (about $60 million) and is expected to grow by 50 percent in the fiscal year ended 2013.