Design Lead

Creative & Design

Apparel design professional
with over a decade of
experience in private label
design and development.
Consulting and Creative Direction

06/19 Lead designer for men's outerwear, swim, and lounge. Managing a team of two direct
reports, two cad designers and one graphic designer in collection development. Focusing on
growing the franchise items and developing trend items.
04/20 Head of men concept working on runway reports, forecasting upcoming season
and color direction.
08/20 Lead designer of Boys responsible for knit, sweater, eece and lounge assortment.
Managing a team of one direct report, two cad designer and two graphic designers. Creating
commercial designs that re ect the conceptual direction and business strategy of the company.

Responsible for designing three private label men's brands in all categories. Worked with marketing to develop key looks for the E-Commerce department leading to a steady growth
YoY. Led Nordstrom Men's Shop to becoming a staple brand hitting over $100M in sales in 2016 and re-launched a Nordstrom brand increasing sales from 2M to 10M in a two year turnaround.

SENIOR DESIGNER

Managed a team of nine direct reports for design and development for all men's knit categories.
Partnered with overseas factories to optimize designs and minimized rework cost by working
with manufacturing, assembly, product development, and staging personnel - internal and external. Worked directly with technical design team to ensure t and production was consis-
tent with brand vision. Designed all product for basic silhouettes which consisted of $300M in sales annually.

Lead designer for men's henley and polo categories. Mentored three junior designers, focusing on growing and cultivating junior talent while managing a team of eight direct reports. Headed
up the polo business which was the highest growing product while in charge of that category.

Designed and developed all knit and sweater categories across seven private label brands and partnered with design director leadership to create on trend and engaging product presenta-
tion. Optimized designs and work with production designers to execute overarching ideas,
re-purposed work, or design from scratch.

DESIGNER

Supported factory through the development of new silhouettes, sweater, and stitch develop-
ment. Building relations with the Sales team for better understanding on selling product based on trend deck for new seasons. Created a library of stitches in core yarns for future develop-
ment.
PROFICIENCIES
Flex PLM / Web PDM
Adobe Creative Suite
Microsoft O ce Programs
Sketch/Technical Drawing
In-Depth Knowledge of Fabric,
Printing, and Wash Process

FREELANCE DESIGNER

Find out detailed information about Denis Lates, Design Lead in Fircrest, WA

Denis Lates: Design Lead in Fircrest, WA

Denis Lates

ART INSTITUTE