Natalie Binns

https://www.omnes.com/ Led the product team (designers, pattern makers, garment tech, production) for a sustainable fashion e-commerce start-up, taking them from conception to launch leading buying strategy and design direction.

• Built customer profile and trend mood boards to establish clear brand direction for the SS20 launch.

• Developed 4 collections of dresses, jumpsuits and separates (100 options) using sustainable woven fabrics, working with CMT factories in the UK and Europe, implementing critical paths to achieve target launch date.

• Briefed tech packs to pattern maker and saw garment development through from proto to production including fabric sourcing, print development and fittings.

• Placed orders for fabric, trims and production negotiating price and delivery to meet business targets. Built relationships with sustainable fabric mills and negotiated small print runs in order to minimise stock risk.

• Drove sustainability by ensuring factories could produce audits (BSCI and Sedex), visiting factories at various stages of production and working with design to ensure garment end of life was considered.

BHS International owned by the Al Mana Group operates 5 retail stores in the Middle East and 14 UK concessions offering Womenswear, Menswear, Kidswear and Homeware. As Senior Womenswear Buyer I acted as a head of department, leading the product strategy for Womenswear, managing 3 direct reports, working with high levels of autonomy and reporting directly to the Buying Director. A key part of my role was engaging with and understanding customer requirements in a global market, delivering a range which balanced trend-led product with core commercial styling and delivered on the BHS reputation for quality and value (400 options per season). Being a start-up business, it was necessary to work quickly to overcome inherited problems and set-up new processes to increase efficiency. Leading my team, initiating KPIs I created a new critical path which successfully improved on time deliveries by 35% and enabled seasonal timelines to be moved three months ahead, saving the business cash through consolidated shipments, booking orders in downtime as well as strategically placing orders so as not to be overcommitted on short lead time product. In my first season, I improved margin 2% on the season prior by leveraging factory relationships, negotiating and setting expectations to mitigate MOQ issues. I also took ownership of a struggling project to launch UK concessions with an elevated SS19 range, creating strategy, developing existing products, range building and filling gaps, completing the project within deadline and overachieving sales density in our flagship concession store.