Experience

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  Vanner silk weavers

  Jun 2006 - Feb 2007

  Administration

  Assisted designers sourcing, sorting and producing swatches for archives by hand and computer, for buyer.Experienced in made-up product packing, labeling, tagging and quality control.

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  First class university graduate collection

  Sept 2006 - May 2010

  Natasha frances wood

  Graduate collection:-Sold fashion forward garments and print designs through independent online boutiques including “Tout Nouveau”, “Tuc Cic” and “Knock on the Door”. (2010-2012)- Sold Graduate collection designs to River Island available in-store and on-line across the UK. (2010)- Opened and showed at Graduate Fashion Week with an upcycled on trend “Alliance” collection. (2010)

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  Yong fong

  Jun 2008 - Jul 2008

  Design assistant

  - Assisting on collection for London fashion week including sewing and stand manipulation

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  Prangsta costumers

  Sept 2008 - Nov 2008

  Design assistant

  - Working directly with the managing director to cut and construct costumes using vintage fabric within the Prangsta mystical aesthetic.

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  Hga group

  Jan 2009 - Jan 2010

  Design assistant

  Assistant to head designer roles included:- Assisting Head of Design for Design development, range plans, CADS, spec packs, fabric and trims sourcing - Compiling trend, shop, SWOT and branding reports for clients including Orvis, Pineapple and Tesco Clothing.

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  18 and east

  Jan 2010 - Mar 2012

  Womens junior designer

  Womens Junior designer for High Street Brand roles included:- Fashion forward designer working within a small design team for a fast fashion brand, which was inspired by vintage design, street style, with strong print design in the collection.- Capsule collection designs became brand best sellers. - CAD and hand drawn designs for women’s youth, casual and party wear, in woven and jersey with capsule menswear collection.- Designing ranges for external brands including Paul’s Boutique, H&M, Lee Cooper, ASOS and La Senza.- Attending and contributing to fit sessions for salesman and production samples Show less

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  Stitch up london

  Sept 2011 - Jul 2012

  Co founder

  My responsibilities included:- Working as collaborative design team ‘Stitch-Up London’ was born through the love of Urban East London lifestyle. - Stitch-Up creates inspired one off pieces using each members skills, I am the up-cycled designer. - Considering demographic consumer we coordinated a brand launch with Pop-Up Christmas market, live music and art gallery. - Collection published in National magazine launch “Homemade Magazine” in February 2012 and on-line profile with fashionrider.com- Collection sold across London in Tuc Cic boutique, Netil Market and Pop-Up markets. Show less

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  Style lens

  Jan 2012 - Sept 2014

  Freelance trend researcher

  I currently work for Style Lens on a freelance basis my roles include:- Fashion Trend Forecaster for Retail, Catwalk and Street Style analysis across women’s Clothing, Footwear and Accessories.- Producing finely edited future trend reports for on-line publication categorised by Trend, Shape, Fabrication, Print and Colour. - Photographer at London Fashion Week, Trade Shows, Music Festivals, Street Style and Retail product shots across the UK and EU. - Worked closely with company director to re-launch Style Lens website in the U.K.- Social media editor, reporting on fashion and social trends to hit target customers increasing brand awareness. Show less

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  Marks and spencer

  Apr 2012 - Nov 2014

  Freelance menswear designer

  - Employed as trend led designer for market leading Essentials department including Nightwear, Underwear and Socks. My role within the department to gain market share from the younger market and key competitors, market share has increased to 24.6% up by 1.2% on the year in a decreasing total market off 0.3%. - Worked alongside the team to produce initial trend concepts, textile direction, market research and brand positioning for new premium collaboration with ‘David Gandy’ launching in September 2014. - Working closely with the Head of Design to produce seasonal trend forecasts including colour palettes plus fabrication direction. - Presenting trend forecasts to senior management, buying and merchandising teams. - Compiling specification sheets for production across all ranges liaising with buyers, technologists, suppliers and factories. - Seasonally developing new garment shapes and textiles across loungewear. - Print designs for jersey including all over prints, novelties, graphics, placements, hand drawing and stripes using Adobe systems.- Woven textile designer using Kaledo weave. Show less

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  Bravado

  Nov 2013 - Jan 2014

  Freelance outerwear designer

  - Designed and sampled outerwear garments for ASOS, JOY and TK Maxx sourcing fabrics/trims for final production.

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  Bellfield clothing

  Nov 2014 - Jul 2016

  Menswear knitwear and woven bottoms designer

  - Employed as trend led designer to elevate the Bellfield brand with fashion led premium look designs for top high street retailers including ASOS, Topman and River Island for primary consumers.- My knowledge and understanding of design & manufacture with clear precise specification sheets has pushed the Bellfield and D-Struct brands into new concepts by introducing fashion forward shapes and fabrications. - I have successfully developed new fabrications on knits, jerseys and weaves with factories in China and Bangladesh with strong communication to hit tight deadlines on Salesman and production samples. - Working closely in small team to build strong branding including trend and range builds, social media concepts and brand labelling packs for factories. - On the supplier side of the business I have successfully design products for River Island, Blue Inc., TOPMAN, Amazon, New Look and Dunnes Stores attending and liaising directly with buying teams to ensure the correct product for the market with orders in excess of 30,000 pieces. - Seasonally research includes catwalk analysis, retail research in the U.K and abroad including New York, Berlin, Copenhagen & Paris, attending trade shows to source new fabrics PV and Texworld. Show less

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  River island

  Jul 2016 - Aug 2022

  Mens knitwear designer

  -In a challenging market I have reinvented River Island Mens knitwear to fit customer profile and lifestyle pushing ranges in an innovative direction using new bases and stitches, really focusing on making the fabric/knit then amazing garments. The departments has seen a huge growth in polos and tees for the smart area driven by myself, this now makes up over 70% of the department with season sales growth in excess of over 130% from 2019.- Worked on special collections for Olly Murs celebrity endorsement with knitwear selling out in one day. More recently ‘Studio Collection’ for upspecced premium ranges launching Spring 2022. - I pride myself on building professional relationships with an open and honest approach. One of my key skills is working with suppliers internationally. In this field, there are many barriers to overcome; language, understanding of fashion and trend, cultural behaviours. In order to ensure I get the best products, I use clear inclusive communication through email or online and follow up with meetings to ensure clarity. I produce clear reports that are easy to read and clear specification sheets. - Part of my role at River Island is to set live briefs to fashion universities across the U.K where I visit the Universities to set projects, offer tutorials and assess final presentations. Once the projects are complete students win a placement in head our office organised and managed by myself. - As a trusted ambassador for River Island, I attended the first ever talk on mental health within the fashion industry in 2018. Following the talk, I produced a presentation with key findings and facts, relating it to the business and how to make a change. This was presented to the owners and senior management who then asked me to present to the whole company - 1000 people over 5 seminars. Show less

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  University of the arts london

  Mar 2021 - Mar 2021

  Guest lecturer

  Compiled and delivered a lecture on specification sheets to final year fashion students. The presentation gave a brief overview of the industry ways of working, supply chain and company hierachies. Examples of specification were demonstrated with must haves and key tips for fast delivery.Alongside this during Lockdown 2020, I ran portfolio workshops with London Fashion College students voluntarily.

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  Ravensbourne university london

  Jan 2022 - Jan 2022

  Guest lecturer

  Live brief set to foundation fashion and fashion promotion students at Ravensbourne University to work as a collaboration. The project was set to give students an insight into the fashion industry working at a fast pace coming up with new concepts for design and social media to embrace the 'Brave New World' we are stepping into following Corona virus. Students were asked to compile and refine research into trend boards, design range plans with River Island customer profile considered, complete one specification sheet and draft a social media campaign. Once completed one group won and are under mentoring/coaching service with myself. Show less

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  Bettex (hong kong) limited

  Aug 2022 - now

  Design manager

  Sales & Design Manager responsible to cover for Mens, Boys, Baby Boys Knitwear (including accessories). Managing internal and external (China & freelance) designers, overseeing designs, collating cross department ranges and special projects, mentoring, handovers and time scheduling. Organising and hosting customer meetings for seasonal product sampling, including sourcing and discussions around key business plans including (Primark, Sainsbury, C&A, River Island, NEXT, Cotswold Collections, Walmart, LPP Reserve group, Matalan, Zizzi). Building and maintaining customer Relations with strong communication online and in person. Preparing and following up meeting requests with overseas offices using Powerpoint. Introducing new customers to Bettex International and develop the accounts in line with business plans, ethically, sustainably and cost effectively. Promoting Bettex International yarns, fabrics and production capabilities from China and Bangladesh. Monthly market research and analysis per product segment detailed by price, fabric and country of origin with key findings/analysis, business drivers reported to international teams.Catwalk analysis and Trend report preparation for specified categories and customers. Preparing direction for seasonal yarn trends and coordinate with sourcing teams in China office Collating specification sheets for prototype samples cross departmentally. Office organisation - maintaining product and yarn assortment - timetabling Office admin - booking travel, deliveries, printing in a costly manner Show less