Julien Fuller, Head of Menswear Design at Debenhams, talked today on the importance of designing for high street retailers. In his own enthusiastic and heavily comical way, Fuller passed on key facts and wisdom from his years of knowledge as a designer to those spectating.
Fuller was quick to point out the importance of high street retail design over high-end designers and couture houses. He said, after previously working as a designer for Diesel, that in a design studio, “it’s exactly the same wherever you work”, and prompted the idea that it is immensely more rewarding to design garments that “people can actually wear”.
From his ten years experience of working for Debenhams he expressed that “menswear has moved on”, with prints and more daring designs becoming increasingly popular. For the aspiring designers in the audience, he suggested that “the highest amount of employment is now in childrenswear”, and that less publicised areas of design should also be considered as a future career path.
Fuller said of working as a designer that “I want to see my designs on people”, and although high street retail involves creating more technically practical items, and trend forecasting for around eleven months in the future, designing for the public can be extremely rewarding.
Written by Madison Weight