In light of Thomas's departure from Tilly’s, Hezy Shaked, co-founder and executive chairman of the board of directors, will assume the position of interim president and CEO until a suitable successor is appointed.

Leveraging his extensive experience in the retail industry spanning over 40 years, Shaked brings a wealth of knowledge and a deep understanding of Tilly's business dynamics.

Shaked commented: “On behalf of the board of directors and everyone at Tilly’s, I sincerely thank Ed for his many valuable contributions and leadership during his tenure at Tilly’s, and wish him continued success in his future endeavours.”

This news follows Tilly’s better-than-expected results for its Q2 period ending 29 July which were attributed to its prudent expense management.

The retailer expected a deceleration of sales after the back-to-school period which ended in August.

Thomas commented on Tilly’s results at the time and said: “After a slow start to the second quarter in May, the trend of our comp sales improved for the remainder of the quarter and our prudent expense management drove better than expected results for the second quarter.

“We remain cautiously optimistic about the trend of our business considering the sequential improvement in our comp sales trend during fiscal August amid the peak of the back-to-school season to start the third quarter.”