Swimwear Anywhere, Inc. Hiring for Design Director at Farmingdale, New York Full Time

The Designer Director is involved in the entire product design process to include market research, inspiration board development and presentation, design, flat sketching, creating mock ups, specing, sourcing and fitting. The Designer Director is responsible for managing design projects independently, as well as collaboratively, with the Merchandiser and Creative Director.  

Position Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

• Receive information and Merch plan about delivery
• Attend trade fairs, shop the market for ideas.
• Ability to follow and understand the Merch plan and collect trend information, fabric, print, color, and trims to put initial concept boards together
• Present concept boards to the team: Creative Director, VP of Sales, Company Principal, and in case of licensed brands to their teams
• Upon approval of initial concepts, ability to take direction from the meeting and create specific boards for requested deliveries that fulfill the Merch plan and captures the target customer and price points
• Do trim mock ups prior to finalizing concepts
• CAD and/or hand color sketches for initial board presentations
• Supervise and mentor assistants that are assigned to help with any given project
• Supervise the sourcing all fabric, trims, and any other components needed for the delivery from reliable venders in the appropriate part of the world for the correct pricing and minimums,
• After initial sign off of delivery, work with sourcing to procure all necessary items for initial samples and duplicates with documented purchase orders.
• Flat sketch CAD adopted styles in Illustrator program
• Mock up preliminary line sheets for meetings
• Work with the Art Department to initiate all print components
• Print approvals
• Work with the Graded patterns to develop markers for engineered designs
• Provide style tracking chart and spec pack for patternmakers.
• Schedule and attend fittings with principal or product manager.
• Style first protos and have new styles approved before proceeding to final fit
• Make fit comments on all corrections and communicate to overseas office with product managers
• Track progress of samples with product managers and present fit corrected garments at proto fit meetings.
• Communicate all design revisions to the team.
• Review top of production with Product Managers and Patternmakers for any errors

Qualifications and Competencies:

• College Graduate, Fashion Design major a must
• Strong sense of style with the ability to transform abstract ideas into commercially viable garments and meaningful collections following timeline calendars
• Must be computer literate in Word and Excel, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign a plus
• Must be able to illustrate fashion figures and flat sketch
• Strong sewing and pattern making background a plus
• Strong work ethic
• Detail oriented ability to easily switch gears and take direction
• Strong organizational, communication and follow up skills
• Team player and self-starter
• Sense of urgency and intuitive sense of priorities

Education and Experience:

• Design experience in swimwear or intimates.
• Bachelor Degree, Fashion Design Major.