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Menswear Tailoring Designer - Talent Pool - Permanent or Freelance
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Job Description
Working Pattern: 5 days in the office for permanent positions, with flexibility required for freelance roles depending on candidate availability.
Employment Type: Permanent & Freelance opportunities available
The Role
We are seeking experienced Menswear Tailoring Designers to join our talent pools across both Next and Next Sourcing. As our Tailoring Specialist, you will be the creative driver behind the suits, blazers, formal trousers, and smart separates that define our menswear collections. In this role, you will bridge the gap between contemporary trends, elevated fabrications, and precise technical construction, delivering sharp, commercially viable ranges that resonate directly with the Next customer.
Working as part of our dynamic, in-house global design hub, you will collaborate daily with cross-functional partners including Sourcing Specialists, Buyers, Garment Technologists, and Pattern Cutters.
Whether joining us on a permanent basis or on targeted freelance contracts, you will make a direct impact on product quality, design innovation, and market speed.
What You’ll Take On
- Design Elevated Menswear Tailoring: Concept and create market-leading collections across soft tailored blazers, structured suiting, formal trousers, coats, and smart casual separates.
- Translate Global Tailoring Trends: Research international runway movements, street style, and sartorial shifts, adapting high-level formalwear trends into high-performing commercial ranges.
- Master Fabrications & Construction: Design with a deep knowledge of tailored construction, including canvas types, shoulder pads, linings, and technical fabric blends, balancing premium finish with margin targets.
- Drive Fast Turnaround Cycles: Respond quickly to fast-track briefs, delivering detailed, accurate CADs and range plans without compromising aesthetic standards.
- Oversee Technical Specification: Produce precise, fully detailed technical specification packs and CAD layouts for international factories to guarantee exact execution in production.
- Partner Across Global Networks: Work daily alongside global sourcing teams, buyers, technologists, and suppliers to align designs with manufacturing capabilities and delivery calendars.
What You’ll Bring
- Tailoring Design Expertise: Proven experience designing commercial menswear or womenswear formalwear and tailoring, with strong attention to silhouette, proportion, cut, and finishing details.
- CAD & Software Proficiency: Expert skills in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to produce high-quality CAD renders, clean technical packs, and detailed construction callouts daily.
- Garment & Fabric Knowledge: A solid grasp of suiting fabrics (wool blends, linens, performance textiles) and how they perform during wear, pressing, and production.
- Retail & Commercial Awareness: Experience working within high-volume retail, established tailoring brands, or global suppliers, with a clear understanding of production calendars and lead times.
- Collaborative & Resilient Mindset: Strong communication skills to pitch concepts effectively to key stakeholders, combined with the organizational strength to manage multiple seasonal drops under tight deadlines.
- Proactive Curiosity: A continuous drive to explore modern formalwear trends, sustainable fabrications, and innovative construction techniques.
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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 Menswear Tailoring, 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.
About Us
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 online from over 80 countries around the world! So we’ve gone global!
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About The Team
- 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
- Profit-related bonus - based on company performance
- Management share options
- Company car or car allowance
- Private medical insurance
- Sharesave scheme - make savings from your net pay to buy NEXT shares at a discount
- Pension - fixed contribution rates from both an employer and employee perspective, but you're also able to make additional voluntary contributions (AVCs) if you wish to save more.
- Life assurance
- Group income protection
- Wagestream - helping you make the most out of your money
- Salary finance - offers access to affordable loans repaid through salary, simple savings and free financial education.
- 25% staff discount on most NEXT products - plus discount on other products
- Direct to work - NEXT orders delivered free to the office for collection
- VIP sale - early access to the NEXT sale
- Access to NEXT staff shops
- Octopus energy - like cycle-to-work, but for electric vehicles
- Free parking (excluding London locations)
- Travel2NEXT - bus services dependent on location
- On-site dining facilities (excluding London locations)
- National and local discounts on goods and services - this includes things like discounted cinema tickets
- Wellhub - includes access to discounted gym membership
- Simply health - a healthcare subscription service
- Aviva Digicare Workplace+ healthcare service - 7 Free services including Digital GP appointments and an annual health check.
- Onsite GP - Leicester Head Office
- Onsite Physio - Leicester Head Office
- A range of dedicated 3rd party wellbeing partners
- Free eye testing - voucher to use at specific locations
Conditions apply to all benefits. These benefits are discretionary and subject to change.
We aim to support all candidates during the application process and are happy to provide workplace adjustments when necessary. Should you need support with your application due to a disability or long-term condition, feel free to get in touch with us by email headoffice_careers@next.co.uk (please include 'Workplace Adjustments' in the subject line), or call us on 0116 284 2486 and leave a voicemail.
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