From concept to clothing rail: We spoke to the grads making their mark at one of the UK’s biggest fashion retailers
The only BTS I’m interested in
Everyone has a favourite pair of jeans. Even if you haven’t washed them for a year and a half, they still love you back. So versatile, so forgiving, so wonderful.
Whether you go for mom jeans, flares, or super skinnies, we bet you didn’t know there was a fresh-out-of-uni grad calling the shots on your next favourite pair. We went behind the scenes at New Look to follow the grads taking your favourite garms from concept to clothing rail.
Step 1: Design
Elena is a Design Assistant and has worked at New Look for a year
What I love about my job is that there’s no routine – it’s very broad, so it’s exciting doing something different every day.
I usually come in in the morning and check my emails – I get them from suppliers from all over the world in places like China, Turkey and India. The rest of my day is really varied – I could be designing, researching new trends, preparing specification sheets with technical information for suppliers, attending meetings with the Buying and Merchandising teams, or I could be out visiting stores.
When we’re making a pair of jeans, first we research and look for sources of inspiration. We look at what competitors are selling, and work closely with the Buying team – they travel a lot so they often get ideas from things they see overseas.
We decide what’s going to sell well and what our range is missing. I then design different options for the same trend – for example I’ll design 20 pairs of jeans, each with slight differences.
We then chat with our Buyers to decide which specific design we want to put into production. After that, I create a specification sheet including all the details, like what denim to use, or which wash we want, and send this over to the suppliers.
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It’s a really collaborative process; I can design a pair of jeans, but someone might want to tweak them and improve them to become an even better product. No one person is solely responsible for a single garment – everyone’s opinion is welcome.
Even though I’ve only been here a year, my input is really valued by the team. It’s part of New Look’s culture to listen to new people, because we’re fresh and have new ideas. As long as you have the confidence to stand by your opinions, the rest of the team will trust you.
Step 2: Buying
Megan is a Buyer’s Admin Assistant and has worked at New Look for a year
Megan, left
I actually studied English Lit at uni and then fell into fashion after doing a two-month Buying internship in second year.
In my job there isn’t a lot of routine – a lot of the work is very ad-hoc, but we do have meetings where we fit new garments twice a week, and we always need to get new samples in to assess them, as well as checking all our pieces are on-track to be made on time.
Once we’ve gone through all the steps like choosing fabrics and colours, the suppliers post the sample jeans to us, then we’ll do fittings and make notes on them to make sure all the sizing is correct, the denim has the right wash and that all the zips and studs are right. Then we can seal it and send it on to Merchandising.
I get to have a lot of input – my Buyer really trusts me and always asks my opinion on what colour or fabric we should choose. We really put ourselves in the customer’s shoes and spend a lot of time thinking about whether we’d wear a product ourselves.
Step 3: Merchandising
Julie is a Merchandising Admin Assistant and has worked at New Look since last February
My job is basically to assess how well products sell in-store and online. Every day I look at reports from the previous day and analyse how well stuff has been selling. What I like about this role is that there’s a routine – it’s not that every day is the same, but I like that every morning I have a schedule to follow.
A lot of the time, if we want to bring a new product into stores, I do some research to see whether it’s feasible or not. So if we wanted to start selling a new pair of jeans, I’ll run a back history to see if we’ve sold anything similar in the last five years. Then we work out how best to price it and whether it’ll work for our customers.
My involvement with the actual jeans isn’t huge, but getting the history of a product means that along with the Branch Merchandisers, I have a huge influence over actually getting them in stores and pushing the stock out.
It’s such a good feeling when you see someone wearing something that you’ve put in store – we spend so much time making sure we’re choosing products that people will want to wear, so it’s really satisfying when you actually see it happening.
After our Head Of Department has okayed the jeans and we’ve all agreed a price point, it’s up to me to implement this so they’re sold correctly in stores.
I then liaise with the Branch Merchandising Assistant to actually push the stock out into stores and online – I often also work with the E-Commerce team to make sure the jeans are online and that the pictures all look good.
Step 4: Branch Merchandising
Max is a Branch Merchandising Assistant and has worked at New Look for a year
I’ve worked in retail since I was 18 – when I came across the Branch Merchandising Assistant position I was really interested. It sounded really analytical, which I loved – I always enjoyed doing reporting and figures when I worked in-store.
Every morning I report on the stock chosen by particular stores overnight. It’s my job to make sure that any new products that come into the business are sent to the right stores, or to E-Commerce. All our stores are graded depending on size, so I arrange sending stock to where it’ll be most profitable.
When we’re working with a new pair of jeans, my team meets with the Merchandising team to decide where in the country we want to sell them, and which stores we want to put them in. Sometimes we’ll do a trial and only send the jeans to a couple of places to see how they sell – if they do well we order more and distribute them more widely.
It’s so fun working here, everyone is really friendly and open, and there’s absolutely no judgement. I was nervous it would be really cliquey at a fashion company but I felt so welcomed when I got here.
I feel like New Look are keen to give you opportunities, even if you don’t come from a fashion background – as long as you show that you’re interested and that you want to progress, they’ll support you one hundred per cent.
New Look is one of the UK’s most well-known fashion companies, with nearly 600 stores in the UK alone. They’ve been named Best Graduate Recruiter by the London College of Fashion and offer a wide range of opportunities across all areas of fashion.
New Look offer grad schemes in three key areas: IT, Finance, and E-Commerce, as well as industrial placements in Buying, Merchandising, Marketing and Finance.
You’ll be given responsibility from day one, and helped along the way by a really supportive team who truly care about your progression. There are also some pretty sweet perks, like payday parties once a month, sample sales, and a generous staff discount.