dean malone

R&D Leather is a leather manufacture and supply company in the UK that supply British high street brands with leather garments and accessories. My job role for R&D Leather was to design all of their men’s leather garments, bags and small leather goods for future seasons, get them sampled in the relevant factories in Asia and then to organise meetings with the relevant UK brands to present and sell my ideas. I designed from retailer’s mood boards or design packages, as well as from a lot of my own inspiration, as the retailers are always asking for my professional advice on leather. The job required me to be very self motivated, to gain new customers and work on every part of the design process, from sketch to store. It also required me to work very close with manufacturers in Asia and travelling frequently to get the best possible price for the product I was supplying.

I worked at Abercrombie and Fitch as an associate designer on the male denim department for just over 2 years. I had the responsibility of designing all of boy’s denim, from concept, to fit, lab dips, shade bands, tech packs, as well as new fabric development for both Hollister and boys. I was sent on numerous competitor shopping trips to New York and London and also went to Guatemala multiple times for wash and fabric development. I also help develop all the mens Made in America washes and helped design the paint patterns for boys and mens denim by hand. For the last 6 months at Abercrombie I also helped manage an assistant designer, to develop and settle her in to her job role successfully.

I worked at this company on and off since i was 16 and it taught me every process of the leather manufacturing and supply business, from Raw hide to garment on the shelf. It is my fathers business so i know the ins and outs of it.

I worked at Country Road designing all the men's Footwear and Accessories for all stores. I worked with a design assistant and we developed every single accessories item each season, whilst working together with the Men's apparel team to make sure the ranges were cohesive in store. The Country Road Group are the biggest retailer in the Southern Hemisphere so this was a brilliant brand to work for and understand what this market behaved like from a retail perspective for footwear and accessories.