Day in the life of...a high street head of design

In a new series, FashionUnited brings you a ‘Day in the Life’ feature talking to insiders from every different walk of the fashion industry. Here they reveal how they got started, work on a day to day basis, and why they wouldn’t swap their

fashion choice for anything.

Today we are featuring Liz Wilson, head designer at discount retailer Matalan.

FU: How did you come to work as head designer at Matalan?
LW: I have been managing retail design teams for the past 14 years and Matalan interested me because of its ‘no frills’ approach to business – I knew I had the opportunity to make a difference. I was excited by the direct supplier business model, which means we can design the product in-house and work directly with the supply base, developing fantastic value ranges for our customer. I joined Matalan 3 years ago.

FU: Early Morning consists of...
LW: We work on the design processes across the seasons. We start by developing the trends and colour palettes for the season – sometimes this will include me travelling to trade fairs for inspiration. I also look at catwalk shows and feed this into our plans for product trends.

FU: Late Morning consists of...
LW: Next we start designing and developing for the different product area and working with the buyers, merchandisers and technicians and with the supply base to produce ranges that will hit the stores between 5-8 months forward.

FU: And afternoon...
LW: My working day follows an overlapping process of different seasons, continually developing and improving our ranges that will make our customer feel good about the things they buy. However no day is the same.

FU: Daily Objective...
LW: l don’t see what I do as a ‘day job.’ I love what I do. Through inspiration and creative work, I have a desire to make people happy through the products we design. I strive to give our customers the best designed product whatever they can afford.

FU: Why I chose design for a high street retailer?
LW: I was always allured by the idea of working for the ‘high street’ – a more exciting ambition than just focusing on niche markets. I get a kick out of millions of customers being able to afford and buy our products rather than just a few.

FU: What you would recommend about high street design to...a fashion graduate?
LW: It’s exciting and creative and everyday is different, designing needs to be in the blood, it’s not a 9-5 job, dedication is a top requirement but the rewards are fantastic.