Designer, Cut & Sew (Menswear)

Menswear Designer, Cut & Sew RTW
Coach is a leading design house of modern luxury accessories and lifestyle collections, with a long-standing reputation built on quality craftsmanship. Defined by a free-spirited, all-American attitude, the brand approaches design with a modern vision, reimagining luxury for today with an authenticity and innovation that is uniquely Coach. All over the world, the Coach name is synonymous with effortless New York style.
Coach is part of the Tapestry portfolio - a global house of brands powered by optimism, innovation, and inclusivity.
Primary Purpose: The Designer will work the Senior Director and RTW Design team to initiate concepts each season that are fashion driven, reflective of the creative vision and Coach aesthetic for Men's products for all cut & sew knits. This position reports to the Senior Design Director, Knits and Cut & Sew. You will partner with cut and sew and be a part of a dynamic, creative environment where you will collaborate with talented designers and cross-functional partners in the business.

The successful individual will leverage their proficiency in Design to...
- Research artwork and silhouette design for cut and sew category, including T-Shirts and Sweatshirts across Men's and Women's Outlet and Retail channels.
- Partner with senior leaders to refine seasonal concepts, materials, and color palette for cut and sew category.
- Collaborate with Concept team on boards and color palette.
- Create the design for cut-and-sew category, including constructing the garment, determining new fits and incorporating branding details.
- Create the design concept for the artwork, including: scale, technique, stitch direction, print color (select pantone), embroidery (select thread color), embellishments, patches, and artwork placement.
- Research and mock up the graphics, including printing out works to different scales, selecting one work and taping it onto the T-Shirt/Sweatshirt.
- Post launch, review and comment on strike-offs, ensuring design intent is met with regards to technique, color and placement; communicate modifications needed for Production.
- In addition to researching artworks, adapt handbag graphics from leathergoods so that they can be executed in RTW.
- Responsible for timeline adherence; ensure all Design Cards are completed accurately and delivered to Development on time; ensure all samples are available for product presentation and finalization.
- Responsible for upholding design integrity, high quality execution, and timeliness throughout the entire development process from concept through commercialization.
- Partner cross-functionally with Merchandising, Concept, Print, and Product Development on regular basis; participate in meetings with cross-functional category partners.

The accomplished individual will possess...

- Must possess a strong fashion sense and have the ability to interpret trends
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to interact with a diverse group at all levels
- Excellent organizational skills with attention to detail and follow-up
- Strong attention to detail
- Must be flexible and adapt easily to change
- Passion for RTW and a thirst for knowledge

An outstanding professional will have...

- Minimum 5-7 years' design experience focused on cut-and-sew knits
- Bachelor's Degree in Design or related field
- Excellent hand sketching skills; ability to create both freeform garment renderings and renderings on figure drawings
- Ability to CAD technical drawings
- experience in graphic design, preferred
- Experience developing product directly with factories; understanding of apparel development from concept through commercialization
- Understanding of materials, and garment construction & performance (i.e. strong knowledge of fabric, material quality, and how it will perform as a garment)
- Understanding of garment fit & and ability to independently conduct fittings on a model
- Strong working knowledge of Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Microsoft Office
Coach is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and we pride ourselves on hiring and developing the best people. All employment decisions (including recruitment, hiring, promotion, compensation, transfer, training, discipline and termination) are based on the applicant's or employee's qualifications as they relate to the requirements of the position under consideration. These decisions are made without regard to race, sex, national origin, color, age, disability, veteran status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, religion or any other basis prohibited by applicable law. Visit Coach at www.coach.com.

Our Competencies for All Employees
- Courage: Doesn't hold back anything that needs to be said; provides current, direct, complete, and "actionable" positive and corrective feedback to others; lets people know where they stand; faces up to people problems on any person or situation (not including direct reports) quickly and directly; is not afraid to take negative action when necessary.
- Creativity: Comes up with a lot of new and unique ideas; easily makes connections among previously unrelated notions; tends to be seen as original and value-added in brainstorming settings.
- Customer Focus: Is dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external customers; gets first-hand customer information and uses it for improvements in products and services; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and gains their trust and respect.
- Dealing with Ambiguity: Can effectively cope with change; can shift gears comfortably; can decide and act without having the total picture; isn't upset when things are up in the air; doesn't have to finish things before moving on; can comfortably handle risk and uncertainty.
- Drive for Results: Can be counted on to exceed goals successfully; is constantly and consistently one of the top performers; very bottom-line oriented; steadfastly pushes self and others for results.
- Interpersonal Savvy: Relates well to all kinds of people, up, down, and sideways, inside and outside the organization; builds appropriate rapport; builds constructive and effective relationships; uses diplomacy and tact; can diffuse even high-tension situations comfortably.
- Learning on the Fly: Learns quickly when facing new problems; a relentless and versatile learner; open to change; analyzes both successes and failures for clues to improvement; experiments and will try anything to find solutions; enjoys the challenge of unfamiliar tasks; quickly grasps the essence and the underlying structure of anything.
Our Competencies for All People Managers
- Strategic Agility: Sees ahead clearly; can anticipate future consequences and trends accurately; has broad knowledge and perspective; is future oriented; can articulately paint credible pictures and visions of possibilities and likelihoods; can create competitive and breakthrough strategies and plans.
- Developing Direct Reports and Others:Provides challenging and stretching tasks and assignments; holds frequent development discussions; is aware of each person's career goals; constructs compelling development plans and executes them; pushes people to accept developmental moves; will take on those who need help and further development; cooperates with the developmental system in the organization; is a people builder.
- Building Effective Teams: Blends people into teams when needed; creates strong moraleand spirit in theirteam; shares wins and successes; fosters open dialogue; lets people finish and be responsible for their work; defines success in terms of the whole team; creates a feeling of belonging in the team.
Coach is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and we pride ourselves on hiring and developing the best people. All employment decisions (including recruitment, hiring, promotion, compensation, transfer, training, discipline and termination) are based on the applicant's or employee's qualifications as they relate to the requirements of the position under consideration. These decisions are made without regard to age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic characteristics, race, color, creed, religion, ethnicity, national origin, alienage, citizenship, disability, marital status, military status, pregnancy, or any other legally-recognized protected basis prohibited by applicable law. Visit Coach at www.coach.com.