Womenswear Outerwear Designer

Company Description:

The Barbour story began in 1894 in South Shields in the North East of England. Founder John Barbour began supplying oilskins and other garments to protect the growing community of sailors, fishermen and dockers. Still family owned and now fifth generation, Barbour HQ remains in South Shields. Under the leadership of Chairman Dame Margaret Barbour, Barbour has grown into a lifestyle brand sold in over 55 countries worldwide including Europe, the US and Asia offering a wardrobe of stylish functional clothing, footwear and accessories inspired by the unique values of the British countryside. The iconic Barbour Bedale and Barbour Beaufort wax jackets continue to be made by hand in the factory in South Shields. In 2020, Barbour launched Wax for Life, an overarching name for all of Barbour’s wax services designed to encourage customers to extend the life of their wax garments. Wax for Life includes re-waxing and repairs (first introduced in 1921) and Barbour Re-Loved an upcycling circularity initiative. Each year over 70,000 wax garments are sent back to Barbour globally to be repaired, rewaxed or altered.

Position Overview:

We have an exciting opportunity for a Designer to join our Womenswear Outerwear Design team on a temporary Maternity cover based at Barbour House, South Shields. You will be involved in initial concept all the way through to the finished product, creating and developing seasonal ranges in line with critical path deadlines.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Design and develop outerwear products following structured range plan by designing to RRPs, target consumer and following range direction.
• Ability to prioritise and manage multiple projects across multiple seasons whilst adhering to the business-critical path.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the key markets in which to grow sales within Barbour, through regular market visits and range reviews with key representatives from each market.
• Create an accurate, detailed technical specification for each product and ability to communicate development of prototypes working alongside our technical team.
• Manage the full design process of collections and product from concept through to end sales launch.
• Develop comprehensive mood and colour boards and maintain to be accurate throughout the season.
• Ability to communicate with other departments to ensure ranges are aligned across all categories.
• Driving design development of key shapes, fabrics, and relevant new colours with the fabric development team for each season. Ability to accurately manage fabric booking and lab dip requests for collections where responsible. Working with product types - Wax, quilted and insulated products, Waterproof and breathable jackets, casual wear
• Work closely with the technical team and manufacturing base, to create prototype and selling samples to the required fit and specification, in line with the critical path deadlines.
• Assist the creation of outerwear products, through the input of ideas each season and the creation of detailed product specifications.
• Provide accurate information on all products to the Marketing and E Commerce teams.
• Present the product ranges to the Sales teams.
• Ability to work across multiple product types with a variety of specific technical requirements.

Skills and Experience:

• Preferable: hold degree in clothing and fashion design.
• Established experience of designing, developing, and presenting outerwear
• Demonstrate an understanding of the Barbour brand positioning, it’s heritage and competitor brands.
• Experience in creating clothing for multiple global markets.
• Excellent working knowledge of Illustrator and Photoshop packages.

Benefits:

• Discretionary Company bonus scheme
• Staff discount
• Staff shop
• Healthcare cash plan
• 25 days holiday as standard increasing with length of service plus bank holidays
• Free onsite parking
• Subsidised canteen

Note: In the event that a sufficient volume of suitable applications are received, the post may close prior to the specified closing date. Please apply as soon as possible if interested.