Design Manager - Womenswear Jersey

Our client is a highly successful and well-established fashion supplier, renowned for delivering trend-led womenswear collections to leading UK high street retailers.

They are looking to appoint a Design Manager across Womenswear Jersey to lead their talented design team and drive creative excellence across key accounts.

This is an exciting opportunity for a commercially minded and inspirational Senior Designer or Design Manager with a strong background in womenswear jersey, who enjoys working closely with Buyers, leading customer meetings and developing commercially successful collections.

The business offers long-term career progression and opportunities within a collaborative environment.

Main Responsibilities Will Include:

• Leading the womenswear jersey design team, providing direction, support and mentoring to ensure high standards of creativity and performance.
• Driving the design and development of commercially successful jersey collections.
• Building and maintaining strong relationships with Buyers, acting as the key contact for customer accounts.
• Presenting trend research, seasonal concepts and product ranges confidently in Buyer meetings.
• Identifying emerging fashion trends, colours, fabrics and silhouettes, translating these into commercially relevant collections.
• Managing workload, priorities and deadlines across the design team to ensure all customer requirements are met.
• Collaborating with overseas factories and suppliers throughout the development process.
• Supporting business growth by identifying new opportunities within existing and prospective customer accounts.
• Ensuring collections are commercially viable whilst maintaining a strong fashion handwriting and meeting customer briefs.

Person Specification:

• Previous experience in a Design Manager or Senior Womenswear Jersey Designer position.
• Strong womenswear jersey design experience across either short lead time, long lead time, or ideally both.
• Proven experience presenting to and building successful relationships with high street Buyers.
• Confident leading customer meetings and influencing key stakeholders.
• Demonstrable experience managing, mentoring and developing a design team.
• Strong knowledge of current and emerging fashion trends within womenswear jersey.
• Proficient in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.