NEW YORK — Know what's hot in teen fashion? Retailers wish they did.

        Gap Inc. is still struggling, and Tommy Hilfiger and Polo Ralph Lauren are losing luster among the young. It seems there is no one brand or chain that's dictating style for youth these days.

        The lack of focus became apparent for back-to-school, which was grim, as a sluggish economy has forced companies to rein in creativity, analysts said.

        “There isn't that excitement or sense of got-to-have it in fashion this year,” said Wendy Liebmann, president of marketing consultant WSL Strategic Retail in New York.

        Gap announced Thursday that it had turned to a Walt Disney Co. executive — Paul Pressler — as its new CEO to help restore magic to the chain. But some industry observers believe the days are over for seeing any one brand hold sway over the masses.

        The big brand is being replaced by “a whole laundry list of niche brands,” according to Michael Wood, vice president of Teenage Research Unlimited, a market research firm in Northbrook, Ill.

        Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard's Retail Trend Report, said: “We're entering an age of individualism. Teens don't want to be dictated to.”

        That's not good news for the industry.

        When chains like Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch Inc. were true leaders, they energized the fashion business, driving consumers to the malls and generating a slew of knockoffs from rivals who hoped to cash in on the look of the moment.

        After making pants and khakis chic in the 1990s, Gap lost its pulse, producing fashion faux pas and struggling with 28 consecutive months of declining sales. It is pinning its turnaround on a return of the trendy basics that made it famous.

        Abercrombie & Fitch's pricier versions of khakis and other casual basics, backed by edgy — and often controversial — advertising, created a buzz in the late '90s. But recently the clothes appear to have lost some excitement, analysts said.

        “The monotony is what's killing so many specialty stores,” Mr. Barnard said. “Now the only way to tell one store from another is by the name on the door.”

        “Back-to-school was dismal,” said Michael Niemira, vice president of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd. He expects sales at stores opened at least a year, known as same-store sales, to be up only 3 percent in September.

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