Urban Outfitters Design Director

Urban Outfitters•Philadelphia, PA

About The Position

Urban Outfitters is seeking a highly creative, trend-driven Design Director to lead Kimchi Blue, its feminine, expressive, and fashion-forward women's apparel brand. The role will shape the brand's evolution across Day and Night Out dressing, delivering relevant assortments that balance femininity, romance, individuality, and modern fashion sensibility. The Design Director translates cultural influences, runway inspiration, vintage references, and emerging fashion movements into innovative, commercially successful products, elevates the brand identity, and drives newness in silhouette and fabrication. As a member of the Women's Design leadership team, this person inspires and develops talent, collaborates across functions, and leads the creative process from concept through execution. The Design Director defines seasonal creative vision and assortment strategy, maintains a strong understanding of the Gen Z customer, and uses customer and business insights to inform product decisions. The role leads and develops a design team and partners with Buying, Product Development, Technical Design, Production, and Concept/Print/Color teams to deliver the seasonal vision. It also oversees design milestones, product execution, calendars, resources, and budgets.

Requirements

10–12+ years of women's apparel design experience, including leadership and team management.
Strong background in trend-driven, contemporary, or fashion-forward women's apparel, with demonstrated expertise in feminine Day and Night Out dressing.
Exceptional taste level and a portfolio demonstrating originality, fashion relevance, silhouette innovation, and a distinctive creative point of view.
Deep understanding of Gen Z fashion culture, consumer behavior, and the contemporary fashion landscape.
Proven ability to translate trends and creative inspiration into cohesive, commercially successful assortments.
Demonstrated success leading creative teams and partnering with senior leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.
Expert knowledge of women's apparel construction, fit, draping, proportion, and garment development.
Extensive knowledge of feminine fabrications, including lace, sheer materials, woven qualities, novelty knits, and special-occasion treatments.
Strong understanding of fabric development, prints, trims, embellishments, washes, and manufacturing techniques.
Advanced hand and digital sketching skills and ability to communicate design intent clearly.
Ability to independently lead fittings, product reviews, and seasonal presentations.
Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office.
Experience with PLM systems, including Treadstone and BOM management.
Highly organized and adaptable, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced creative environment.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with AI-enabled creative tools such as Midjourney, PromeAI, and ChatGPT, and their application to design exploration and creative presentations.

Responsibilities

Define and execute a compelling seasonal design vision and a distinct feminine fashion identity for Kimchi Blue.
Lead the brand's creative evolution across Day and Night Out dressing while maintaining a cohesive overall identity.
Translate runway, vintage, street style, social culture, and aspirational fashion influences into original, relevant, commercially compelling products.
Drive innovation in silhouette, proportion, fabrication, print, texture, embellishment, and styling.
Build seasonal stories that connect styles through outfitting, color, fabric, and design details; identify opportunities for new product franchises and evolving key items.
Present seasonal direction, product strategies, and creative concepts to senior leadership.
Own balanced, trend-right seasonal assortments that address customer needs, outfitting opportunities, and business priorities.
Establish product differentiation between Day and Night Out and drive newness across dresses, tops, skirts, and relevant lifestyle categories.
Lead seasonal fabric and material direction and partner with Concept, Print, and Color teams on cohesive seasonal stories and differentiated prints and patterns.
Collaborate with other Women's Design Directors to support assortment balance, brand differentiation, and outfitting opportunities across Urban Outfitters.
Guide product development from concept through production, maintaining design integrity, quality, fit, and commercial viability.
Use knowledge of the customer, sales, sell-through, customer response, and competitive trends to shape assortment and product decisions.
Identify white-space opportunities and emerging fashion movements that can support business growth; balance creative risk-taking with commercial drivers.
Partner with Buying on seasonal line architecture, key item strategies, and category opportunities; shop and analyze aspirational, contemporary, vintage, and competitive brands.
Lead, inspire, and develop the design team; set seasonal direction, provide feedback and coaching, and foster creativity, collaboration, accountability, and ownership.
Develop team capabilities in trend interpretation, product innovation, fabric development, and assortment storytelling.
Partner with Buying, Product Development, Technical Design, Production, and Concept/Print/Color to execute the seasonal vision.
Lead concept reviews, sketch reviews, fittings, assortment presentations, and finalization.
Ensure execution of product quality, fit, fabrication, construction, and design details; work with development and sourcing partners on materials and techniques while meeting cost and margin objectives.
Communicate progress, risks, and opportunities to senior leadership and cross-functional partners.
Manage design calendars, resources, and budgets to meet business milestones, and identify ways to improve speed, efficiency, and product-development processes.