Designer, Men's Sweaters

Company Overview

Club Monaco is an international men’s and women’s lifestyle brand with a distinctly urban casual point of view, best defined as a play of opposites: mixing vintage with new, hard with soft and eclecticism with minimalism. Each season, Club Monaco offers customers must have fashion and key pieces that together are the foundation of a modern wardrobe.

Club Monaco was recently acquired by Regent, LP, a leading private equity firm based in Beverly Hills.

Position Overview

The Designer is responsible for designing and managing four seasons, along with continual add ins including research, product design, technical spec packages, presentation and development follow-up. This is a full-time role, based 3 days a week in our midtown Manhattan office and 2 days from home.

Key Responsibilities

Research

• Contribute to inspiration boards, prints/pattern boards and details boards
• Partner with Design Director in initial concept development
• Support research in product trends, marketplace competitors and business direction
• Research fabrics, trims and other raw materials
• Partner with PD to source yarns/stitch techniques for design needs at target price point
• Curate seasonal color trends. Partner with PD and designers to manage lab dips and knit downs.

Design

• Support Director in design and development through innovative research, sketches and yarn selection/allocation - while maintaining integrity and aesthetics of the Club Monaco Brand.
• Maintain digital boards with up-to-date sketches, tear sheets, yarn headers and trims according to seasonal concept and merchant matrix.
• Create and maintain seasonal line sheet and design archives.
• Organize and maintain all product samples which include reference/vintage samples and seasonal prototypes.
• Manage technical sketches, detail specs and trim charts (BOM) for Product Development team, including flat sketches (hand croquis and computerized illustrator), points of measurements and construction details.
• Provide jacquard artwork and stripe layouts when necessary.

Development/Follow-Up

• Work through CFT to identify and solve problems, keeping Design Director informed and updated
• Work closely with the product development team through development process to ensure the highest level of quality and integrity within price points
• Follow through on stitch and trim development
• Continuously communicate with merchandisers maintaining design intent and point of view
• Attend fittings (comparison fitting, proto and production fitting) and review samples (proto and production) to lead communication for design changes, while upholding design’s intent and specifications
• Adhere to design calendar and deadlines. Work to execute projects accordingly
• Monitor sales and retail sell-through to determine successes and failures to build for future collections

Skills and Requirements

• Minimum 5-6 years experience in sweater design
• Proficiency in MS Office: Outlook, Word, and Excel
• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud: Illustrator and Photoshop
• Positive attitude with goal driven work ethic
• Keen attention to detail.
• Self Starter, taking initiative when team is in need
• Strong yarn terminology, knitting techniques and garment construction/finishes.
• Strong design point of view, in-depth market knowledge and garment designs and details research
• Strong illustration and flat sketching skills; both hand sketch and illustrator
• Excellent interpersonal skills supporting a fast paced team environment
• Excellent English communication - verbal and written. Comfortable in public speaking and professional presentation.
• Excellent time management/project skills. Strong planning skills to multi task and prioritize projects to meet deadlines 
• Ability to recognize and react to changing work demands