Natasha Knight

o Leading the casual jkts/Outerwear category to help to turn the business into a profitable one by working alongside buying and production teams as well as executive leadership to rebuild the business by taking into account market vs own-brand penetration, designing brand right customer centric key pieces and creating seasonal assortments that balance core and novelty aesthetics.

o Bringing my knowledge of the importance of the corporate design process, strategic assortment decisions & strong cross functional relationships and demonstrate a resilience in the ever-changing working environments with an adaptative design approach. Possess the ability to react quickly to feedback from conceptual and business objectives to refine and adapt to the evolving selling environments to create trend right saleable pieces that embody the brand’s ethos.

o Manage and motivate a direct report to reach their potential by leading by example and creating positive working environments through mentorship and collaboration. Teaching the building of assortments and delegating tasks to ensure high productivity.

o Building detailed tech packs with clear fit and trim intention to yield well executed first fit samples.

o Pushing the Jackets and OW in terms of shape and fabrication to create newness whilst also creating volume driving styles that become staples of the core business.

o Working with the fabric team to thoughtfully select seasonal fabric newness as well as helping to re-establish the core structured fabric assortment by bucketing fabrics into key categories.

o Consistently meet tight deadlines and work multi-seasonally to create quality products in a tight time-frames to hit deliverables.

• Leading the outerwear & accessories categories. Oversaw production if the line from concept to completion.
• Keeping on top of calendar, awareness of key commit dates and calendar deadlines to ensure hight productivity. Organizing and planning the work load for myself and my direct report.
• Designing trend right product for our target customer. Researching, creating trend reports, and mood boards for the season ahead. Helping to shape the creative direction of the season by communicating category specific ideas.
• Developing a thorough understanding of the competitive landscape and assortments through store visits and extensive market research, seasonally creating "key items" reports to establish innovative product offerings for consumers.
• Created detailed measurement and construction specifications for design to be executed appropriately by production teams.
• Collaborated with print and graphics teams as well as tech designers and product development teams to bring designs to life and meet target market needs.
• Selected fabrics, patterns and trims to use in final designs and meet desired aesthetics and quality standards.
• Evolving the product by understanding cost engineering and designing product within our cost parameters. Working closely with the sourcing and merchants teams on cost challenges and balancing this with protection of the original design intent. Taking into account costs of fabrics and trims and considering cost effective construction ideas.
• Leading the fit meetings on the design side to ensure we receive fits correct for our target customer whilst keeping in line with the seasonal global fit direction.
• Seasonally developing fabric and trims working closely with the sourcing team to communicate our intention for the up & coming season.
• Taking ownership of all fabric development, considering longer lead times and specific attributes.

• 3 months after joining A&F I was leading the girls outerwear category
• Identified trends through various portals & websites, developed a deep understanding of our customer through competitive shopping trips, research, reports and by participating in focus groups.
• Designed extensively into 4 seasons with my category being the No. 1 volume driving category for the Fall/Winter season.
• Worked closely with sourcing teams to develop fabrics and trims.
• Communicating with a variety of cross-functional team members such print/pattern/graphics designers, technical designers, merchants, sourcing and planning.
• Developed advanced illustrator skills, producing accurate technical flats with specifications for factory use using the PLM software program.
• Presented designs to company leadership in final sketch & line review meetings.
• Provided guidance and advice to junior design team members. Nurtured and mentored 2 design interns allowing myself to develop leadership & training skills being responsible for the growth & development of a peer.

• Assisted the design team consisting of 15 high level designers with trend research and analysis of key seasonal ideas to translate into the brand handwriting
• Learning from well-versed designers was a great kick start to my career within industry and gave me deep seated knowledge & understanding of the design process
• Became proficient in Adobe Illustrator producing accurate technical flats suitable for factory use which in turn allowed me to take ownership of the Tees category and later the knits and fleece category.
• Learnt how to build strong relationships with cross functional team members. Working with merchants & product developers I gained first hand insight into the design process from design of the garment to its production & the various roles & steps within this process improving greatly on my team work & communication skills.