Lead Designer
New York, NY | $130,000 to $160,000 per year
An established women's contemporary fashion brand is hiring a Lead Designer to guide the creative direction of its occasionwear and lifestyle collections. The brand is known for refined occasionwear and modern femininity, with placement at major retailers including Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom plus a growing direct-to-consumer business. This role reports to senior leadership and helps define the brand's next phase across dresses, separates, and expanding lifestyle categories.
Schedule Full-time, onsite in New York, NY.
Compensation $130,000 to $160,000 per year, depending on experience.
What You'll Do You will establish and execute seasonal creative direction aligned with the brand's vision and growth strategy, developing collections across dresses, separates, and emerging lifestyle categories. You will build cohesive seasonal concepts through color, print, material, and silhouette development, identifying trends, customer preferences, and market opportunities to shape product direction. Balancing creative vision with commercial strategy, you will deliver collections that resonate with the target customer.
You will collaborate with merchandising, product development, and sales partners from concept through final product, and present seasonal concepts and collection strategies to leadership and cross-functional teams. You will also support and mentor members of the design team, helping maintain a collaborative creative environment.
Required Qualifications
- 7 or more years designing women's apparel in a contemporary, premium, or luxury environment
- Demonstrated expertise in occasionwear, special event dressing, or elevated women's categories
- Strong command of color, print, fabrication, and proportion
- Solid understanding of fashion trends, customer behavior, and market positioning
- Strong illustration, sketching, storytelling, and presentation skills
- Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience designing full lifestyle collections beyond apparel
- Background working with department store and direct-to-consumer channels
- Experience leading or mentoring a design team
Compensation and Benefits
- Salary of $130,000 to $160,000 per year, depending on experience
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- 401(k)
- Paid time off
To apply, submit your resume along with a portfolio or lookbook representative of your occasionwear and contemporary design work.
