The battle for control of struggling teen girl apparel retailer Wet Seal isn’t going to be a pillow fight.
George Hall, who heads up an activist investor in the 553-store chain, plans to nominate a mostly female slate of board candidates to replace Wet Seal’s current five-member board, The Post has learned.
Hall, the founder of Clinton Group, a $2.7 billion New York hedge fund, has been pushing for the sale of the 22-year-old chain — which has lost customers to hotter rivals like Forever 21 and H&M.
The board candidates rounded up by Clinton Group, which owns a 4.7-percent stake in the Foothill Ranch, Calif. retailer, were described to The Post as having strong retail and fashion experience and being “mostly women.”
“You want people who are going to be in tune with the consumer and the product,” said a person close to the plan.
The candidates could be unveiled as early as next week, said a person close to the project. Wet Seal declined to comment.
The battle between Clinton Group and Wet Seal started in June with a letter to the board from portfolio manager Joe De Perio complaining of sagging sales, “choppy” performance and an inability by the shareholder to meet with then-CEO Susan McGalla.
A little more than a month later, on July 23, Wet Seal announced it fired McGalla without a replacement — after just 18 months on the job.
In a letter to the board at the time, Clinton called the move “a good first step,” but privately criticized the firing of the CEO as hasty and abrupt, a person close to Clinton told The Post.
Things ratcheted up further last week when Clinton sent Wet Seal a letter saying it was still awaiting an answer to its request for a sale and threatened a board fight barring a “satisfactory” response.
Wet Seal responded by publishing all the hedge fund’s letters to the board on its website and telling Clinton in no uncertain terms to back off.
“We will not be pressured into making critical decisions about the company’s business strategy in an impractical and imprudent time frame,” Wet Seal said in a July 30 statement.
The board also said it was working on a “comprehensive strategic plan” which it promised to unveil during its quarterly earnings call on Aug. 21.
But the response prompted Clinton to move forward with plans for a board overhaul, sources said.
Clinton plans to conduct what’s known as a consent solicitation, which would require shareholders to decide the election by writing in their votes.
Clinton would need more than 50 percent of the votes — a high bar.
Wet Seal shares are down 34 percent in the last year. Since July 25, shares have jumped 15 percent to $3.07.