Free People Senior Designer - Dresses

Role Summary

Free People is seeking a Senior Designer to lead the development process of design project supporting the Free People Dresses category. The Senior Designer actively participates in designing seasonal collections, sewing/ mocking original ideas for key meetings, and supports the team to ensure that designs and resulting product are cohesive and appropriate for the Free People customer. 

The Free People Dress category touches several fabrications and aesthetics. A successful candidate will have a strong understanding across fabrications base in both Woven and Cut & Sew Knits (Jersey) as well as understand construction and technical fitting of Dresses range. They would have a strong vision for pushing new shapes, details as well as prints and embellishment. The Free People Senior Designer is passionate about fashion, trends and dresses and is all about newness and product elevation to constantly bring unique designs ideas across dresses, one pieces and set dressings!

Role Responsibilities

• The Senior Designer will lead the design creation, development, and execution of own brand product appropriate for Free People Dresses with a focus on Femmes, Sexy and Only at Free People sensibilities.
• Be able to recognize and accurately forecast fashion and cultural trends and understand how they relate to the Free People customer. As a Senior Designer Dresses, you will play a key role in collaborating, brainstorming, and presenting monthly trend direction for your category alongside the Design Director.
• Thrive in a fast-paced environment, constantly pushing new ideas, concepts as well as responding to business objectives with creative and innovative designs to move the category forward.
• Attend all fittings and support the Team through problem solving fit issues and communicating.
• Support seasonal development calendar for both Retail & Whls deliveries.
• Creative Contribution to the design process including sketching new ideas with the help of procreate and Adobe programs (Illustrator, Photoshop), researching new trends and ideas as well as utilizing ai platforms to increase creative research (such as MidJourney, PromeAi)
• Manage development and execution of all design packages alongside Assistant Designer and participate in all follow-up communication related to each package in partnership with the Design Coordinator & Product Development team.
• Strong initiative and point of view on design research and staying up to date with industry trend direction, color direction, and fabric innovations that can relate to the Free People target customer.
• Execute original design ideas through sketches and draped & sewn mocks to communicate design’s vision in key meetings.
• The Senior Designer Dresses will also oversee 1-2 Assistant Designers.

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Role Qualifications

 

• Bachelor's Degree in Fashion Design with related field experience preferred.
• 8-10 years experience in Dresses Design or related category preferred.
• Ability to work on-site 3-5 days per week at our Home Office (Navy Yard) in Philadelphia, PA. 
• Creative & Trend Vision:
  • Creativity is a must! Having a strength in pushing new ideas, silhouettes, and design concepts
  • Demonstrate the vision to identify trends in their early stages and understand their impact to fashion, so we can be one step ahead for the aspirational customer. 
  • Expertise in taking aspirational ideas, focusing on the key details and make them work for a broader audience.
  • Ability to research and report on industry trend direction, color/print direction, and fabric innovations approximately 9-12 months ahead of season. 
  • Passionate about dresses!!!!
  • Excellent hand sketching and CAD skills in Procreate, Photoshop, Illustrator
  • Ai knowledge/experience would be a plus!
• Fabric/Sewing knowledge:
  • Strong understanding of Cut & Sew Knits (Jersey) & Woven fabrications and technical ability to apply that knowledge on to fits and designs
  • Ability to drape, mock and sew.
  • Any knitwear/sweater experience would be a plus!
• Soft Skills:
  • Strong sense of organizational skills as well as passionate of fast speed environment
  • Excellent communication skills to communicate ideas and inspirations to others and to interact with Designers, Buyers and other Cross Functional partners. Collaboration across teams is key at Free People
  • Strong project management skills and ability to manage the whole design process for multiple projects at different production stages
  • Ability to respond to business objectives with creative, innovative, and cost-effective design solutions 
  • Some experience with managing 1-2 team members would be added