Working Pattern: Typically 5 days in the office, with core hours flexible between 8am-6pm.
The Role
As our new Assistant Boyswear Designer for Woven Bottoms & Shirts, you will be part of the creative engine behind a category that shapes the modern kidswear wardrobe. This is a fast-paced, highly creative 12-month Fixed-Term Contract (FTC) where your mission will be to translate global trends and street-style influences into cool, wearable, and "must-have" trousers, cargos, chinos, and shirts that resonate with both kids and parents alike.
Working closely with our in-house buying, sourcing, and global supplier teams, you will turn fresh ideas into commercial, elevated products that keep Next ahead of the high street.
Next Sourcing are at the heart of finding, developing and delivering the products our customers love, wear and use every day. Located across the globe, our Next Sourcing teams specialise in all different parts of the sourcing operation, from design and technology to product development.
What You’ll Take On
- Support the Design Vision: Assist in identifying key trends in colour, fabric, print, and silhouette for the boyswear market, helping to build cohesive, playful, and commercial casual collections.
- Design with Agility: Respond rapidly to design briefs across both woven bottoms and shirts, turning fresh sketches into "production-ready" designs at high-street speed.
- Technical CAD Work: Spend your day-to-day creating highly detailed CADs, and tech packs ensuring every specification is precise for our global manufacturing partners.
- Inspirational & Development Travel: Join the team on trend-scouting trips and, crucially, travel overseas for factory visits to work directly with our suppliers, gaining hands-on experience in the production process.
Sample Management & Refinement: Take ownership of the sample lifecycle, reviewing prototypes for aesthetic accuracy, print quality, and fit, ensuring every garment is refined and ready for successful range reviews.
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What You’ll Bring
A Passion for Kidswear: A genuine interest in boyswear construction, understanding the balance between durable, kid-proof functionality and style.
Creative Agility: A natural at spotting youth culture and streetwear trends, with the ability to quickly translate a "big idea" into a practical, commercial garment design.
The Ability to Juggle: Highly organised with the resilience to stay calm under pressure, comfortably managing multiple briefs and tight deadlines across both bottoms and shirts.
A Collaborative Spirit: A proactive communicator who enjoys working alongside cross-functional teams and global suppliers to solve construction, fabric, or cost challenges.
Commercial Savvy: An understanding of the balance between aspirational design and high-street price points, keeping a close eye on garment complexity without losing the "wow" factor.
Technical Foundations: Relevant design experience (retailer or supplier background) or a specialist fashion degree, alongside high proficiency in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop for professional grade CADs.
Portfolios
To help us get a feel for your style, please attach a digital portfolio to your application. We are looking for work that demonstrates a sharp eye for the future of boyswear wovens, how your ideas can be commercially viable for NEXT, and showcases your direct design and CAD work. To help you put your best foot forward, we’ve put together a few top tips on what makes a portfolio stand out to our team.
Applications without a portfolio will not be considered.
Sponsorship
Candidates wishing to apply who would require sponsorship for this role will be required to meet the Home Office sponsorship requirements. For further information please see: https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa .
We encourage early applications for our roles, as our recruitment process begins as soon as the role is advertised. If we successfully fill the position, this advert may close earlier than planned.
At NEXT, we believe the best work happens when there are no barriers to collaboration. That’s why we are a Google-powered workspace. From your very first day, you’ll be using the full Google Workspace suite; Docs, Drive, and Meet, to stay connected and move fast.
If your previous experience is rooted in other software suites, don’t worry! We’ll point you to a digital Google toolkit the moment you join, packed with handy guides and insider tips to help you transition smoothly and hit the ground running.
#LI-Onsite
You know Next, but did you know we’re a FTSE-100 retail company employing over 44,000 people across the Next group. We’re the UK’s 2nd largest fashion retailer and for Kidswear we’re the market leader. At the last count we have over 450 stores, plus the Next Online and it’s now possible to buy on-line from over 80 countries around the world! So we’ve gone global!
