About this role
POSITION TITLE: Designer
REPORTS TO: Sr Designer
SUPERVISES: Assistant Designer
American Eagle is a youth culture brand grounded in denim. Our purpose extends beyond making the best jeans–we embrace self expression, culture, optimism and connection. Through the brand platform Live Your Life, we empower our community to be who they want to be all while wearing the clothes that make them most confident.
Get to Know the Role: This role is responsible for seasonally designing and executing the AE Women’s Knits assortment that relates to the seasonal concept and overall aesthetic and philosophy of AE.
What You’ll Do:
- Identify market trends domestically and internationally continually and evaluate trends as they relate to American Eagle.
- Working closely with the AE Women’s design leadership, identify big ideas + key items that will answer the seasonal brief and business Needs.
- Excellent sketching and vector cads skills that communicate proper proportion, details and constructions for presentation decks and techpacks.
- Apply seasonal color, print and pattern to the line post sketch reviews and work with leadership to balance out according to the key focus palettes and color stories.
- Wash and color development seasonally to work with any new seasonal washes or any new wash on an existing fabric.
- Have thorough working knowledge of raw materials and work with material team to source seasonal fabrics, attend weekly material meeting to manage requests and approvals. Support the design director with seasonal platforming needs for material pre-positioning.
- Partner with Women’s leadership on seasonal presentations and key milestones and be able to confidently field questions from executive leadership team.
- Oversee seasonal decks with all up-to-date information on details, wash and color.
- Create techpacks and assemble all information needed to direct the tech team on the design intent.
- Partner with production team to schedule hand off’s according to calendar deadlines aligned with directors.
- Attend and support all style fittings to guide the teams through fit comments, support and proof follow up actions.
- Trim/submit approvals along with color/print/stripe approvals.
- Gold tag, shade band and other color/material approvals.
- Support assistants with daily vendor emails.
- Partner with production team to achieve the highest quality product within the cost structure that is needed.
- Partner with merchants to ensure design is aligned on seasonal needs and changes throughout the season.
- Supervise Assistant Designer to assist in the development of that individual to grow to the next level.
- Understands importance of training as a key role in developing their direct reports and guides them.
- Manage design team's workload and day-to-day, help to prioritize through the complexity of overlapping seasons.
- Partner with leaders on seasonal calendar and category specific deadlines to ensure these are achievable.
- In person/in-office collaboration is required, the frequency of such in-person/in-office collaboration (e.g., portion of week, entire week) is dictated by business needs. Such collaboration includes work centralized around product development, milestone meetings, fittings, and approvals.
What You Bring:
- Bachelor’s Degree in Fashion or Art (or equivalent experience and education).
- Experience working in Apparel.
- 5+ years related experience
- Keen eye for color, trend, detail and construction
- Able to multi task and prioritize based on business objectives
- Working knowledge of Illustrator and Excel
- Ability to act as liaison between many departments; excellent communication and analytic skills.
- Must be detail oriented, computer literate and able to handle multiple tasks at once.
Pay/Benefits Information:
- Actual starting pay is determined by various factors, including but not limited to relevant experience and location.
- Subject to eligibility requirements, associates may receive health care benefits (including medical, vision, and dental); wellness benefits; 401(k) retirement benefits; life and disability insurance; employee stock purchase program; paid time off; paid sick leave; and parental leave and benefits.
- Paid Time Off, paid sick leave, and holiday pay vary by job level and type, job location, employment classification (part-time or full-time / exempt or non-exempt), and years of service. For additional information, please click here.
- AEO may also provide discretionary bonuses and other incentives at its discretion.
Other facts
About American Eagle Outfitters
American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) is a portfolio of unique, loved and enduring brands: American Eagle, Aerie, OFFL/NE by Aerie, Todd Snyder and Unsubscribed. We provide a welcoming and engaging customer and associate experience, and we embrace all. Merchandise assortments consist of high-quality, on-trend apparel, intimates, activewear, accessories, and personal care products for women and men. We are a true omni-channel retailer with a global reach.
Our brands are connected under the core tenet of REAL, which is optimistic, empowering and celebrates individual self-expression. That power and authenticity drives us to create a positive impact across every facet of our business, brands, and products.
We are a company led by purpose. Over ten years ago, we introduced AEO Better World – an initiative grounded in social responsibility and giving back to our communities. Across our brands, we support a number of important causes that are meaningful to our customers and associates. We operate with integrity and a strong set of values, which is ingrained across our business and in how we treat our associates, business partners and customers.
At AEO, we believe that our associates are our most valuable asset and we want them to feel motivated and have the freedom to be themselves at work. We strive to be an employer of choice – a place where people are excited to come to work because they believe in what we do, enjoy working with each other and have fun doing it. If you think AEO sounds like a fun place to work and grow your career, you’re right!
What you'll do
- The Designer is responsible for designing and executing the AE Women’s Knits assortment in alignment with seasonal concepts and the overall brand aesthetic. This includes identifying market trends, creating tech packs, and collaborating with various teams to ensure product quality and alignment with business needs.
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