Ava Baird

Dallas, Texas

PROFILE

I am a seasoned professional in the Home and Apparel Textile Industry. Strong knowledge of design, product development, sourcing, merchandising and production processes with proven success.
I have demonstrated abilities to manage and market a product from concept to finished product. Effective team management and leadership ,Team player, flexible, committed, detailed oriented and organized. I have a broad range of technical knowledge relating to extensive development, testing the quality of woven, printed textiles and sewn product construction methods.


PROFESSIONAL HISTORY



JC Penney Corp., Plano Texas 2009 – 2012
Soft Home, Designer for Bedding and Bath, Home Division.
Responsible for ensuring Designs are executed as planned of all initial Samples to Direct and Indirect Vendors;
$306 Million in Bedding Sales including Retail, Catalog and.com.
• Collaborated partnerships with Product Development, Sourcing, Color team, Merchant Team and the International Buying Office.
• Create Product Packs and Specs in Flex PLM for Sourcing Team to distribute to supplier.
• Interpreted seasonal fashion direction and merchandise trends ensuring communication of concepts to overseas suppliers.
• Designed Original Embroideries, Jacquards, Prints and Dobbies for Both Bedding and Bath Divisions.
• Adhere to critical dates on the T & A calendar to get Merchandise on the floor.
• Managed overseas daily activities with Sourcing and IBO’S to ensure all critical dates are met while keeping Design integrity and quality standards.
• Strong knowledge of Trims, Fabric and related manufacturing processes as well as all printing processes.
• Drive item dominance through power merchandising ensuring that appropriate amount of color, style and innovation is developed and offered to the customer.
• Collaborated with Direct and Indirect suppliers to gather knowledge of the competitive landscape.
• Execute seasonal Strategic Deck to ensure that the product assortment aligns with a modern business strategy.
• Traveled to Europe for Trade Shows and Trend Presentations.



Consulting 2007 – 2009
Designer
• Original prints, Graphic Arts, Package Design, Hang Tags, Labels, Tech Pack, Specs, Both Hard and Soft Goods Embroideries, Jacquards, Adult, Fashion, Tweener, Juvenile Bedding, Curtain lines, all Apparel, Wallpaper, Pillows, Accessories, Rugs and Carpets.
• Clients include: Domestications, Company Store, Qualfab Industries, Robert Allen, Zenitex, Cranston Mills, Amsway Inc. and Marcus Bros. Stacie Allison Branded Designs Home, Chaus , Federated, Ballard,Raymond Waites and EFS INC.



LOUIS HORNICK & CO., NYC 2005 – 2007
Design Director/Product Development/Sourcing
$43 Million in Sales
• Branded Home Designs (WENDY) along with Licensed Products.
• Main clients included: J.C. Penney, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Linens & Things, Ikea, and Wal-Mart.
• Supervised the Art Department and Cut & Sew Department.
• Responsible for developing all products from conception to delivery, sourcing fabrics with Domestic and Asian mills.
• Developed original textile designs (prints, embroideries and jacquards) that were adopted by J.C. Penney and Wal-Mart.
• Worked and Traveled to mills in Pakistan, India and China.
• Handled all daily communication with overseas partners, factories, and mills.
• Spec and tech pack skills.
• Traveled to Europe and Asia for Shows and Trend Presentations.













VICTORIA CLASSICS, NYC 2003–2005
Design Director/Product Development/Sourcing
$12 Million in Sales
• Provide leadership, supervision and direction to three departments including Art, Trend, and Cut & Sew.
• Designed original lines (prints, embroideries and jacquards) for Bedding, Window, Bath, Rugs and decorative pillows.
• Fabric Research and Development.
• Main clients included: J. C. Penney, Wal-Mart, Target (licensed products for Waverly), Federated, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Sears, Kmart, Anna’s Linens, Family Dollar and Linens & Things.
• Placed two large Core Programs in Window and Top of the Bed with Wal-Mart and J.C. Penney in 3 months.
• Worked closely with all Vendors and Agent offices to ensure that monthly production capacity was utilized by season.
• Monitored production status of all assigned programs.
• Spec and tech pack skills.
• Traveled to Europe and Asia for Shows and Trend Presentations and working with the factories.

FALLANI and COHN, NYC 1999–2003
Design Director/Product Development/Sourcing
• Designed original lines for Table Linens, Kitchen Linens, Slipcovers and Licensed Products (Woolrich, Waverly, Out of Hand, Royal Doulton and American Vintage)
• Hard and Soft Good Products.
• Lines placed at Bed, Bath & Beyond, Anna's Linens, Steinmart , Linens & Things,Target and Federated.
• Worked with domestic and international mills in US, India, Pakistan, Korea, Turkey, and China.
• Spec and tech pack skills.

WINGATE MONDAY INC., NC 1990–1999
Design Director/Product Development/Sourcing
• Designed fabric for Women’s , Junior and Men’s apparel.
• Juvenile furniture, bedding, wallpaper and Carpet (Fashion, Tweener, Juvenile Bedding).
• Developed original fabric for juvenile furniture and Apparel lines (licensed, Mattel, Disney, and Warner Bros.).
• Provided direction and supervision for 11 artists.
• Traveled domestically and overseas.
• Spec and tech pack skills.

CONSULTING CLIENTS
• MIROGLIO TEXTILES
• AL-ABID SILK MILLS, PAKISTAN
• GUILFORD MILLS, NYC
• CRANSTON PRINT WORKS, NYC
• TOWN AND COUNTRY, NYC
• RAYMOND WAITES, NYC – included wallpaper - worked directly with Raymond Waites
• ROBERT ALLEN, NYC
• DISNEY
• WARNER BROS.

EDUCATION

Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC - BA
Textile Surface Design, Home Furnishing Design, Illustration, Fabric Science, Fashion Buying, and Merchandising
New York University, NYC – Associates Degree & Fellowship
AD: Business Management
Fellowship: Computer Graphics

COMPUTER SKILLS
MAC and PC
• CAD Design, Photoshop CS6, Illustrator CS6, In Design CS6, Acrobat CS6, Adobe Bridge CS6
• Painter, Color Scheme, Quick Repeat, Color Vision, Style Draper Pro, PlaidMaker Pro, Motif Studio
• Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Entourage and Outlook

• IWorks, Numbers, Pages, Keynote, Iphoto, Photobooth,
• Graffle , Surface Magic, Sketchup 3D
• Myriad Software, Flex PLM and SharePoint

AWARDS
• CHAIRMAN’S AWARD, (recipient of JCPENNY’s Top-performing Company’s highest Honor) April 2010
• CREATIVE MIND AWARD, (recipient of WING VICTORY’S creative Artist, The Company’s highest Honor)