Senior Designer

We are looking for a Senior Designer to join our dynamic and innovative Karen Millen design team. You will be responsible for designing and building ranges across the softs department. You'll be able to monitor the commercial potentials of the designs and create products that are innovative and creative. This role is based out of our central London office in the heart of Soho and will be working directly with our Design Director.

Your team:

We’re Karen Millen. Since 1981 we’ve been a household name and trusted brand. We’re known for elevated style and our reputation for fabric, finish, quality, and detail speaks for itself. Our love for fashion revolves around long-lasting, luxurious designs that can effortlessly slip into an established wardrobe at an attainable price point.

What you'll be doing:

• Deliver balanced and extensive design research e. g. using directional shopping, fabric fairs, catwalk awareness to create unique stand out product lines that are customer focused.
• Is able to monitor / evaluate the commercial potential of designs within own area and can articulate key shapes and volume lines
• Have a confident approach to trading, adapting your forward ranges to maximise sales and new learns accordingly.
• Responsible for creation of concept board / packs for design presentations ensuring all research/items are sourced to represent key messages
• Use your seasonal research to drive commercial and innovative fabric sourcing into price arch.
• Create technical packs consistent for suppliers to translate. Wide technical knowledge utilised to support technical team to create best fit garments reflecting relevant blocks
• Liaising with peers within the Buying and Merchandising teams to fully support the overall delivery of a profitable and commercial range whilst helping to drive a wider awareness of trend and innovation through the business
• Travel to our supplier bases in Europe, India and the Far East for seasonal sourcing of key fabric and new opportunities and ideas
• Take ownership of category, ensuring your product is available for all look book / campaigns and ecommerce shoots.

Working with us:

To succeed here, you have to love working at pace. It’s relentless, but we love it. Change is a certainty – you need to adapt and be agile. We want you to challenge the status quo, innovate and be open to trying new things. We’re always pushing boundaries. We empower our people, giving them freedom and autonomy to learn and grow in their roles. We’re passionate, agile, creative and one team.

More about you:

• Proven experience within a previous design role (softs-product- ideally)
• Outstanding commercial awareness and comprehensive understanding of womenswear trends.
• Exceptional communication skills, capable of working with other product teams and external suppliers to build productive relationships
• Proficient Computer skills including Microsoft Office and CAD: Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator
• Comfortable working at pace. Agility is something you pride yourself on.
• A strong leader, able to direct and mentor your team, create clarity and face into difficult conversations.

Why join us:

We’ve set our sights on dominating the global e-commerce fashion market, and because we are a collective of brands, there are plenty of opportunities to grow your career. Our mission is to create a workplace where everyone is respected, their individual differences are valued, and they can be themselves at work without exception.

Dependent upon level and eligibility, our benefits include:

Bonus, Pension, Share Schemes, Life Assurance and

• 40% discount across 4 brands, 20% discount on Debenhams
• Opportunity to take part in Learning and Development training- expanding your knowledge on areas outside of your day to day.
• Core hours enable you to flex your working times around your needs on an ad hoc basis
• You’ll get the opportunity to take part in our various share schemes- where your impact on the business will also impact you!
• Benefits that support your health and wellbeing
• Our social calendar? Next level!