Women's Textile Designer

Role Summary

The Women’s Textile Designer is responsible for developing original prints, patterns, and surface designs that bring a prominent surf brands Women’s seasonal collections to life. The role combines textile design expertise with a strong understanding of women’s fashion, surf and swim culture, color, styling, and evolving consumer trends.

Working closely with Women’s Design, Merchandising, and Product Development, the designer translates seasonal concepts into distinctive textile stories across swimwear, apparel, and lifestyle product. The role balances fashion relevance with the prominent surf brands authentic surf identity, ensuring prints enhance garment silhouettes, support seasonal merchandising strategies, and meet technical and commercial requirements.

Key Responsibilities & Job Duties

1. Textile Design & Print Development

• Develop original all-over prints, engineered prints, placement prints, florals, stripes, geometric patterns, abstract designs, and other surface treatments.
• Create seasonal print stories across swimwear, dresses, tops, bottoms, cover-ups, and lifestyle apparel, as applicable to the collection.
• Explore hand-drawn artwork, vintage references, natural influences, and contemporary fashion trends.
• Develop print scale, repeat, placement, and colorways appropriate to each garment and product category.
• Ensure textile direction creates a cohesive relationship between swim, apparel, and seasonal lifestyle collections.

2. Market Shopping & Trend Research

• Conduct regular market shopping across women’s fashion, swimwear, surf, resort, outdoor, and lifestyle brands.
• Identify emerging directions in prints, patterns, color, texture, and textile treatments.
• Analyze competitive assortments and identify opportunities for differentiated print and color stories.
• Translate consumer insights and trend research into original, commercially relevant designs.
• Maintain an understanding of how women shop, style, and build seasonal collections.

3. Color, Fabric & Silhouette Integration

• Develop textile colorways that support seasonal color direction and the overall collection.
• Consider fabric composition, stretch, weight, texture, lining, and end use when designing prints.
• Partner with apparel and swim designers to ensure prints complement garment silhouettes, proportions, and construction.
• Understand the technical considerations of textile design for swimwear and other products requiring stretch, lining, or specialized fabric performance.
• Balance statement prints with versatile, commercially relevant options across the assortment.

4. Technical Development & Production

• Prepare production-ready artwork, seamless repeats, engineered layouts, color separations, and technical print specifications.
• Establish repeat dimensions, scale, placement, and color standards for manufacturing partners.
• Review strike-offs and print submissions for color accuracy, registration, scale, repeat, and quality.
• Partner with Product Development and vendors to resolve technical issues and maintain design integrity.
• Ensure prints translate accurately across fabrications and finished garments.

5. Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Women’s Design, Merchandising, Product Development, and Production throughout seasonal development.
• Collaborate with Graphic Design and Creative on shared artwork and visual storytelling.
• Present print concepts and seasonal textile direction to internal stakeholders.
• Incorporate feedback and manage revisions, approvals, and deliverables within the seasonal calendar.

Skills & Qualifications

• Degree in Textile Design, Surface Design, Fashion Design, or related field preferred.
• 3–5+ years of textile or print design experience, preferably in women’s fashion, swimwear, surf, or lifestyle apparel.
• Portfolio demonstrating original print development, pattern design, repeat engineering, and colorway execution.
• Advanced proficiency in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
• Strong understanding of textile printing, color management, strike-offs, and production processes.
• Knowledge of stretch fabrics, swimwear materials, and textile applications across different garment types.
• Strong understanding of women’s fashion, color, styling, silhouette, and consumer preferences.
• Excellent market-shopping, trend-research, communication, and organizational skills.
• Ability to balance creative experimentation with commercial needs, technical requirements, and seasonal deadlines.