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Freelance Fashion & Textile Designer

Freelance & Contract

Contract apparel and textile designer specializing in women’s and men’s markets including contemporary, lifestyle, streetwear, and technical outdoor apparel, with extensive professional and personal experience in the action sports industry. Clear understanding of sampling, garment construction, and fit. Experienced in tech pack development, and trim, fabric and manufacturer sourcing. Has solid knowledge of researching and identifying emerging concepts and trends, and adjusting them to fit a particular market and brand image. Excellent with vendor communication, both overseas and domestic, for details of all sample development through production. Knowledge of all aspects of the garment development process to a market-ready point. Skilled in creation of prints in production-ready format. Personal background in action sports and outdoor activities including snowboarding, surfing, hiking, and trail running.

*Portfolio viewable at www.kvpdesigns.com


• Complete tech pack development
• Garment fittings
• Technical flat sketches
• Trim design & development
• Fabric, trim & manufacturer sourcing
• Color development
• Line sheet creation
• Creation of factory-ready prints for digital, sublimation, and screen printing
• Consulting

Client categories include: activewear, mountain bike apparel, technical outerwear, womens/womens contemporary knits and wovens, and childrens/layette.

• Designing women’s Merino base layers, and mountain bike apparel with a focus on fit, styling, and function
• Creating tech packs and technical sketches
• Assisting with sourcing trim/fabric vendors and manufacturers
• Fitting all garments and sending fit comments to manufacturer
• Communication with all vendors and manufacturers for sampling through production

Freelance Designer & Production Consultant

• Designing and developing men’s and women’s contemporary apparel for modern urban & outdoor lifestyle
• Sourcing fabrics and trims both domestically and overseas
• Creating style and sku plan, seasonal color story, and category merchandising
• Fitting all garments for men’s and women’s categories
• Styling & assisting with execution of seasonal photo shoots
• Ideating & executing creative projects & concepts based on brand identity
• Factory communication
• Materials sourcing

Head Designer

• Designing both men’s and women’s technical outerwear pieces
• Creating tech packs for all technical outerwear pieces
• Managing all communication regarding design with overseas factory
• Fitting all samples, and sending fit comments

Lead Designer

• Fit garments from 1st proto through SMS
• Developed washes on a variety of denim and chambray weights with in-house and external wash houses
• Presented collection to international and domestic sales team at seasonal meetings, and internally
presented collection to upper management
• Attended research shopping days to study the market and identify upcoming trends
• Attended trade shows to gain firsthand knowledge of product sales feedback
• Hand sketched original designs for entire collection based on seasonal theme and market research
• Commented on and approved lab dips and wash submits
• Managed Assistant Designer and Intern to ensure team deadlines were met
• Designed multiple prints per season based on theme
• Worked with Merchandiser and Design Director to edit new styles and choose carry-over styles for each season
• Assisted with sourcing new manufacturers
• Worked directly with patternmakers and tech team to perfect fit of all garments
• Gained extensive knowledge of various denim qualities and how they respond to wash different techniques

Associate Women's Tops Designer

• Created and maintained tech packs using a combination of Illustrator and Excel
• Assisted with fittings and sent all fit comments to factories
• Managed salesman sample production
• Sketched technical flats on Illustrator
• Gained hands on experience with both wet and dry wash techniques for denim and chambray
• Assisted with design research and development
• Frequently visited local factories to ensure timely execution of all salesman samples
• Managed Design Assistant to ensure deadlines were met
• Monitored sewing department to ensure all samples were executed properly and on time
• Issued cut tickets for internal styles using company-wide computer system “KMS”
• Acted as liaison between pattern, fabric, cutting, sewing, and wash departments internally
• Communicated with domestic and overseas vendors on a daily basis to coordinate deliveries, approvals, and request submits according to calendar deadlines
• Sourced fabric and trims with local and overseas vendors
• Designed prints with repeats and multiple colorways for digital, screen, discharge and water-based printing
• Worked directly with both in-house and external dye houses to achieve correct colors for seasonal palette on wovens and knits
• Prepared samples for photoshoots, and assisted with styling models

Assistant Designer- Women's Tops

• Cleaned and created graphics on Photoshop
• Created line sheets for each season using digital images
• Prepared prints for sublimation printing
• Designed motifs and layouts for hot-fix and embroideries
• Created and maintained up to 200 BOMs per season
• Re-colored prints to create multiple colorways
• Retouched prints for production use

Assistant Designer

• Draped garment mock-ups to present to designer
• Used Photoshop to create mock-ups of full garments and additional colorways
• Communicated with trim, color, cutting, and fabric departments on a daily basis
• Specked garments prior to fittings
• Created layouts for embellishments and embroideries, using a variety of different hardware and techniques
• Regularly communicated with sewing and pattern department and assisted with daily troubleshooting

Intern

· Assisted with design and production 
· Conducted competitive analysis research
· Compiled trend research                  
· Attended sample fittings and reviews
· Created theme boards                    
 · Compared samples in various stages of development
· Designed organizational systems for samples and materials
• Created Powerpoints for theme presentation
• Organized and maintained all protos and samples
• Filed and organized all trims and materials
• Created mood boards based on creative direction

Design Assistant

Kelsey Van Patten is a Freelance Fashion & Textile Designer at KVP Designs in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Kelsey Van Patten

Kelsey Van Patten

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Education history

Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising