Role: Mid-Level Designer (Mat Cover)
Contract: Full-time (12 Months)
Start Date: ASAP
Location: London
Founded by Gemma Shiel from a North London Garage in 2001, Lazy Oaf is a design-led lifestyle brand with a history of doing things our own way. What started with hand-printed T-shirts sold from a stall in East London has now become an established independent brand, with creativity, collaboration and community at its heart. Lazy Oaf is primarily a DTC brand with retail space in London.
Mid-Level Designer at Oaf
We are looking for a Mid Level Fashion Designer to join our small in-house design team. Supporting our Design Manager with the smooth running of the Oaf design function, ensuring we design all the Oaf Goodness alongside our brand objectives and creative direction. You will be working on various projects ranging from seasonal collections to collaborations which requires you to be directional, dynamic, versatile and a person who is organised beyond the sock drawer but also a creative wizard. If you have an excellent creative eye and a passion for both men’s and women’s street wear and contemporary design, you have come to the right place ☺︎. As an independent company we strive to be original and unparalleled, and are looking for a new team member who reflects this ethos.
What are we looking for?
A deep obsessive knowledge and understanding of contemporary style and streetwear. Passionate About Design and thrive on the excitement of creating incredible lazy oaf collections. You have the ability to design within strong concepts and stories, focus on style, fit and detail that work for the brand and keeps us ahead of the curve and future facing.
Creative Flex: Your mind is brimming with ideas, always striving to create the extraordinary, the unexpected and next best seller. A Culture Sponge, You have a keen eye for 00's nostalgia, contemporary sub culture and an obsession with streetwear and design.
Detail-Oriented: You have an eye for the small things—whether it’s a stitch, a seam, or that perfect shade of red that makes everything that little bit better. You’re all about the details.
Organisation: Supporting the design and development teams with great communication, keeping track of the deadlines and sticking to the timelines, running multiple projects at once.
Technical Design Skills: You’re a master in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator. You know your way around a google deck. Speak the language of mood boarding and You know how to create clean, detailed designs and design packs that speak for themselves.
Team Player: You’re not just looking for a job; you’re looking for a place where they thrive on collaboration. You’re excited to be a key player in this growing team and eager to help elevate every aspect of the brand’s vision. A Person who doesn't mind rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty. Working within a small team you will be working with the design manager to ensure the design process and the critical path run smoothly, projects run to deadlines and the everyone is inline and delivering to those goals.
Creative Problem Solving: There’s always something that needs tweaking. Whether it’s finding a new fabric or coming up with a solution for a tricky design challenge, you’ll use your creativity and problem-solving skills to find the answer. We love print and grahpics, it's our bread and butter, we would love for you to have a High-level understanding of print and graphic application
The Role
- Concept development: Mood-boarding and design research. Conduct product and seasonal analysis, supporting the team with creative direction, building out mood boards, that help fuel design to create innovative product ideas, keep lazy Oaf ahead of the game and provides inspiring story telling context for the broader team.
- Bring your contemporary style, love of youth culture and streetwear knowledge to life by designing bold concepts that reflect our brand’s identity, focusing on style, fit, and unique detailing.
- Push creative boundaries, you know how to make creative designs that are also commercially viable but speaks to the Lazy Oaf community. You get that it’s about balance: strong designs that also need to work in the real world.
- Working with the team to develop innovative designs that speak to the community in fresh, exciting ways.
- Working alongside the creative function to propose collection stories, part of the ideation process that extends through our brand story telling at product launch.
- Working with our Buying and Merch team on range plan building and executing with final design.
- Supporting the design process, from initial concept to final product, making sure every stitch and seam is perfect.
- Creating the design briefs, maintaining a collaborative work process to include constructive feedback and sign off points. Ensuring brief translations form a collection that would get our customers foaming at the mouth.
- Working across categories such as Men’s wear, Women’s wear, life style product and accessories and whatever we can think of next!
- Prepare Design packs with precision and detail. Our manufacturers will be able to make your designs exactly as you imagined them—no guesswork necessary. Minimising those not so happy accidents, ensuring each product reaches perfection.
- Collaborate closely with the Product Development team to share fit notes and feedback on samples, take responsibility for new fit developments, and manage garment execution, ensuring the final product consistently meets the highest quality standards.
- Collaborate with the Product Development team to ensure sample reviews and garment execution are on point. Seeing product development from a design guardian perspective, attending fit sessions, providing feedback and design edits where necessary.
- Collaboration: managing external Creative network - relationships – outsourcing to creative talent, initiating external briefs, clear deliverables and manage efficiency, and delivery of required artwork on time.
Requirements
- Understands the Lazy Oaf aesthetic and approach to design, and have an affinity with the brand. You need a good eye, dark humor, and an unhealthy fashion fixation, designing with impact and risk in mind, we like to push ourselves creatively and not be led by trends.
- Has sound knowledge of fabrics, garment construction and an eye for colour.
- Has a solid understanding of fashion design and garment construction, especially in womenswear. You know the difference between a 'Good Fit' and a "what is happening there?" Experience with garment fittings and providing feedback that’s constructive, not critical.
- Has a good eye for contemporary graphics and youth culture.
- Experience in contemporary street wear across both Men’s and Women’s wear.
- Is a hoarder of odd images found on socials and the internet for those 'just in case moments'.
- Can work well under pressure, manage their time and can stick to strict deadlines, is adaptable and with the ability to coordinate multiple projects simultaneously.
- You’ve worked in fast-paced, creative environments and have a track record of delivering successful projects without losing your cool.
- Understands and work to the budget constraints of production and manufacturing.
- A wiz in the Adobe creative suite.
- Ability to work as part of a team as well as drive individual projects. Confident in presenting back and communicating well to other members of the team.
- Highly organised, self-motivated, competent and can use own initiative You’re obsessed with details (and we mean obsessed).
- Sustainability Focused: You care about the planet. From sourcing eco-friendly fabrics to designing for longevity, you're thinking about the future of fashion.
- 3/5+ years of experience in the fashion industry, with at least 3 years in a similar role.
- Please note that a right to work in the UK is required for this role.
Life at Oaf
As part of our ongoing commitment to create a work environment that values wellbeing, balance and inclusivity, at Lazy Oaf we have been successfully trialling an adjusted work week for the last 18 months. An adjusted work week offers Oafs more flexibility around their personal commitments, responsibilities and interests.
The adjusted work week format at Lazy Oaf is a four day week. This means that Head Oaffice Oafs currently don’t work Fridays. A few t&c's apply that we can talk you through at interview stage.
Of course we also offer a competitive salary, great discounts across our products and pension contributions after a qualifying period.
At Lazy Oaf, we don’t just accept difference – we’re built on it. Lazy Oaf is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.
Hell Yeah! How do I apply?
If you think you tick all of the above boxes then we want to hear from you! We are likely to receive a lot of interest in this role. Please submit your C.V, a covering letter telling us why you are the right person for this job, links to your work (no Huge files please). We would also really love to see a one page Lazy Oaf SS26 Mood-board, which pushes the brand forward and shows innovative thinking and a demonstration of the above skills. Please send this info to [email protected] with the subject title ‘Fashion Designer’. This Is a full time contract for 12 months.
