Creative Lead – Western Wear

Role Overview

The Creative Lead for Western Wear is responsible for establishing and steering the creative vision, textile innovation, and product development strategy across men’s, women’s, and children’s western wear categories. This role involves transforming the brand’s ethos, craft heritage, and modern trends into commercially viable collections that are aligned with merchandising strategies, cost targets, and business goals. The position leads a cross-disciplinary team comprising textile designers, fashion designers, and product development merchants, managing the journey from concept and trend direction to range development, costing alignment, presentation, and final product delivery for production.

Key Responsibilities

• Set the seasonal creative direction for western wear across all categories, including trend research on colors, fabrics, silhouettes, and craft techniques.
• Convert fashion trends and indigenous craft stories into relevant seasonal themes that maintain brand consistency.
• Engage in market research by visiting competitors and analyzing consumer behavior, sales feedback, and retail insights to shape design decisions.
• Develop strategic seasonal range plans balancing price points, categories, and styles aligned with business objectives.
• Guide textile innovation by collaborating with artisans and sourcing teams to create unique textiles and surface treatments that are scalable and cost-effective.
• Work closely with product development and supply chain teams to ensure product engineering aligns with costing and margin expectations.
• Oversee sample development processes, ensuring design specifications, fit, and construction meet quality and timeline targets.
• Lead and mentor a multidisciplinary design and product development team, fostering collaboration across departments.
• Prepare and present seasonal range presentations and curated collections to leadership and buying teams, refining designs based on feedback.
• Coordinate the handover to production teams, ensuring clear documentation, material details, and design integrity throughout manufacturing.
• Partner with marketing teams to support brand storytelling, lookbook creation, campaign direction, and visual merchandising concepts.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in Design, preferably from National Institute of Fashion Technology or similar.
• 12 to 15 years of experience in western apparel design and product development.
• Proven track record leading multidisciplinary design teams and in textile and craft-based design innovation.

Key Skills

• Strong understanding of western fashion design sensibilities and textile development.
• Ability to fuse craft heritage with contemporary fashion trends.
• Expertise in trend forecasting, range planning, and product architecture.
• Knowledge of fashion business strategies, merchandising, costing, and margin management.
• Leadership skills including team management, cross-functional collaboration, and effective communication.
• Technical proficiency in garment construction, sampling, fit development, and product engineering.