Creative Lead – Ethnic Wear Full Time

The Creative Lead – Ethnic Wear will define and drive the creative vision, textile innovation, and product development strategy across men’s, women’s, and kids’ ethnic wear categories.

The role translates brand ethos, craft heritage, and contemporary trends into commercially viable collections, ensuring alignment with merchandising strategy, costing targets, and business objectives.

The position leads a cross-functional team of textile designers, fashion designers, and product development merchants, guiding the entire process from conceptualization and trend direction to range development, costing alignment, jury presentation, and final product handover for production and launch.

Position Objective

• Provide creative leadership and strategic design direction for the ethnic wear categories.
• Drive innovative textile and apparel design development aligned with Fabindia’s craft heritage and market positioning.
• Ensure commercially successful collections through strong range planning, costing discipline, and trend relevance.
• Lead end-to-end design processes, including concept development, sampling, range presentation, and production handover.
• Manage and mentor design and product development teams to deliver high-quality, timely collections.

Key Responsibilities

1. Creative Direction & Trend Strategy

• Define the seasonal creative vision for ethnic wear across categories.
• Lead trend research including colour, fabric, silhouette, craft, and surface development trends.
• Translate fashion trends and indigenous craft narratives into relevant seasonal themes.
• Develop seasonal design strategy documents outlining concept, colour palette, materials, and styling direction.
• Ensure creative consistency across all product categories while maintaining brand identity.

2. Market & Consumer Insights

• Conduct market visits and competitor mapping to understand product positioning and design opportunities.
• Analyse consumer behaviour, sales feedback, and retail insights to guide design decisions.
• Review previous season sell-through reports to identify successful products and areas of improvement.
• Collaborate with PH’s, sales, retail, and merchandising teams to incorporate market intelligence into product development.

3. Range Planning & Collection Development

• Lead seasonal range development across categories based on option plans and business targets.
• Develop range architecture ensuring balance across price points, categories, and styles.
• Create range projection sheets with clear design direction and commercial viability.
• Oversee concept boards, mood boards, colour stories, and styling narratives for each collection.

4. Textile Innovation & Product Development

• Guide textile designers in developing fabrics, prints, weaves, and craft techniques aligned with seasonal themes.
• Work with artisans and sourcing teams to develop unique textile bases and surface treatments.
• Ensure textile innovation while maintaining cost feasibility and scalability.

5. Product Engineering & Cost Management

• Work closely with PD merchants and scm teams to align product development with target costing and margin expectations.
• Ensure product engineering and value optimisation without compromising design integrity.
• Review first costings and BOM details to ensure alignment with business margins.
• Guide teams on material selection, construction methods, and finishes to achieve desired cost and quality.

6. Sampling & Development Process

• Oversee sample development across categories, ensuring design accuracy and quality.
• Manage fit development, pattern approvals, and construction detailing.
• Coordinate with PD teams to ensure timely development and sampling schedules.
• Approve final prototypes before production readiness.

7. Team Leadership & Cross-functional Coordination

• Lead and mentor textile designers, fashion designers, and PD merchants.
• Facilitate effective collaboration between design, merchandising, sourcing, and production teams.
• Ensure clear communication of design intent and technical details throughout the development process.
• Manage timelines and deliverables across the design lifecycle.

8. Range Presentation & Jury Preparation

• Prepare seasonal range presentations for internal design and merchandising reviews.
• Lead jury preparation including curated collections, storytelling, mood boards, and key styles.
• Present design concepts, innovation, and product strategy to leadership and buying teams.
• Refine collections based on jury feedback and business alignment.

9. Production Handover & Launch Readiness

• Ensure complete design documentation and spec sheets for production teams.
• Oversee the handover process from design to production ensuring clarity in fabrics, trims, finishes, and technical details.
• Monitor initial production samples to maintain design intent and quality standards.

10. Brand Building & Creative Communication

• Collaborate with marketing teams on seasonal storytelling and brand narratives.
• Support development of lookbooks, campaign direction, and styling guidance.
• Contribute to visual merchandising concepts and retail storytelling.

Qualifications & Experience

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Design (preferably from National Institute of Fashion Technology) or equivalent.

Experience

• 12–15 years of experience in ethnic apparel design and product development
• Proven experience leading multi-disciplinary design teams
• Strong exposure to textile development and craft-based design

Key Skills & Competencies:

Creative & Design Skills

• Strong ethnic design sensibility and textile understanding
• Ability to translate craft heritage into modern fashion
• Expertise in trend forecasting and range building

Commercial & Strategic Skills

• Understanding of fashion business and merchandising strategies
• Ability to balance creativity with cost and margin targets
• Strong range planning and product architecture capability

Leadership & Collaboration

• Team leadership and mentorship
• Cross-functional coordination
• Strong communication and presentation skills

Technical Knowledge

• Textile development and surface design
• Garment construction and product engineering
• Sampling and fit development
• Costing and margin management

Interested candidates please send resume at reena.bhadouria@fabindia.net.