Tailoring and Outerwear Designer - Womenswear Brands - 12 Months Fixed Term Contract

Working Pattern: Typically 5 days in the office, with core hours flexible between 8am-6pm.

As the Tailoring & Outerwear Designer for Laura Ashley, you will bring a fresh, contemporary vision to our heritage-inspired collections. Your primary mission is to seamlessly blend timeless elegance with modern style, designing beautiful structured garments, tailored coordinates, and standout outerwear that our customers will love.

In this role, you will make a significant impact by honouring the signature aesthetic of the Laura Ashley brand while driving its future design direction. You will collaborate closely with a passionate, multi-functional team, including Buyers, Merchandisers and Technologists to bring cohesive collections to life.

What You’ll Take On

• Shape Brand Collections: Conceptualise and develop seasonal ranges across structured tailoring, smart coordinates, and outerwear that reflect the unique identity of Laura Ashley.
• Gather Global Inspiration: Undertake inspirational travel and market research trips to identify global trends, source beautiful fabrications, and gather styling directions that elevate our product offer.
• Perfect Fit and Finish: Partner closely with garment technologists and pattern cutters during fit sessions to ensure immaculate tailoring details, premium construction, and perfect silhouettes.
• Deliver Rapid Turnarounds: Respond swiftly and creatively to design briefs, producing high-quality CADs, technical packs, and design layouts under fast-paced timelines.
• Design to Cost: Work creatively within established price point guidelines, ensuring our products maintain high design integrity and quality without compromising on style.
• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Work hand-in-hand daily with buying, merchandising, and external manufacturing partners to ensure ranges are commercial, cohesive, and delivered on time.

• Tailoring & Outerwear Expertise: Proven experience designing structured fashion, with a strong understanding of tailoring construction, outerwear silhouettes, and fabric draping.
• Technical Proficiency: Essential, expert-level knowledge of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create precise, detailed CADs and comprehensive factory tech packs.
• Brand & Commercial Taste: A strong natural taste level and an eye for spotting trends, combined with the unique ability to translate heritage style into commercially successful, modern products.
• Strong Team Spirit: Outstanding teamwork and people skills, you are highly organised, handle busy design seasons with ease, and communicate your ideas clearly.
• Industry Insight: Solid experience working with external factories, brands, or suppliers within a fashion retail environment.

Portfolios
To help us get a feel for your style, please attach a digital portfolio to your application. We are looking for work that demonstrates a sharp eye for the future of Tailoring and Outerwear, how your ideas can be commercially viable for NEXT, and showcases your direct design and CAD work. To help you put your best foot forward, we’ve put together a few top tips on what makes a portfolio stand out to our team.

Applications without a portfolio will not be considered.

Sponsorship
Candidates wishing to apply who would require sponsorship for this role will be required to meet the Home Office sponsorship requirements. For further information please see: https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa.

We encourage early applications for our roles, as our recruitment process begins as soon as the role is advertised. If we successfully fill the position, this advert may close earlier than planned.

At NEXT, we believe the best work happens when there are no barriers to collaboration. That’s why we are a Google-powered workspace. From your very first day, you’ll be using the full Google Workspace suite; Docs, Drive, and Meet, to stay connected and move fast.

If your previous experience is rooted in other software suites, don’t worry! We’ll point you to a digital Google toolkit the moment you join, packed with handy guides and insider tips to help you transition smoothly and hit the ground running.

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Benefits