Dina Battipaglia and Rafe Totengco were appointed by Jones Apparel Group's handbag business to group president and creative director, respectively. The two will focus on building a cohesive handbag strategy for all of Jones' brands.

As group president, Battipaglia will handle day-to-day operations of handbags and drive the business across all brands from product development to sales. Previously, she oversaw the building and development of the Henri Bendel signature brand and also served as a senior executive at Liz Claiborne, where she was interim president of Kate Spade and president of LCI Acessories, whose brands include Juicy Couture, Lucky Brand and Monet.

Totengco will take on the newly created role of creative director, where he will be responsible for creating a compelling product vision for Jones' handbag brands. He will create products for the retail, wholesale and international divisions with an initial focus on the Nine West and Vintage America brands. Totengco has his own handbag collection, called Rafe New York.

"We are thrilled to welcome Dina and Rafe to the Jones family of talent," says Richard Dickson, president and chief executive officer of branded businesses at Jones Apparel Group. "An important element of our mission is to nurture and attract design and merchant talent to help drive our multi-category multi-branded business. Dina's proven merchant savvy and Rafe's gift for world class design, combined with Jones' resources and brands will take our handbag business to new heights."

Jones Apparel Group's licensed brands include Givenchy (costume jewelry), Dockers (women's, infants', toddlers' and boys' footwear), Rachel Roy (apparel and accessories) and Jessica Simpson (jeanswear).