A commercially-driven, "ego-less," and hands-on creative professional who is passionate about working with fashion brands at the cusp of change. As an inspiring change agent, works with leadership to understand the new brand and business strategy and combines business acumen with creativity and intuition. See how the store, product and all visual aspects of the business need to pivot and work together to propel it forward and reach the best results. Works collaboratively with teams to inspire new visual direction and re-works store's look and feel and provides creative direction to product and marketing teams to ensure a seamless and an upgraded visual experience that results in increased performance. Highlights "Christopher is the hands-on creative resource for small- to medium-sized fashion brands wanting to reposition and up-level their visual game." Kirsten Kuhlmann, Head of Retail for Hackett ● 15+ years of consistently supporting fashion brands to reposition and pivot by re-imagining and re-working the look and feel of stores (interior and visual merchandising). ● Cultivates strong relationships with stores and operational teams to gain buy-in and increase store performance. ● Partners with product teams to infuse creativity into better designs and collaboratively help create more commercial products. ● Provides strong and creative art direction to many aspects of the businesses including photoshoots, PR events, product launches and advertising campaigns. ● Successfully manages visual operational budgets of up to 1Million Euros ● Leads teams of up to 6 people across different aspects of the business and locations.
A small Italian sailing brand sold in Europe Visual Merchandising Director Provided overall visual and creative direction to stores, digital and press events as the brand was pivoting from pure sailing to sports lifestyle ●Redefined the in-store visual merchandising strategy and refined product assortments in stores which increased retail sales in stores by 50% within 3 months ●Re-engaged store managers as owners of their business and advocates for their product needs ●Guided merchandising teams to categorise stores (revenue, store size and market needs) and to plan the assortments accordingly ●Developed seasonal and brand guidelines to support monthly merchandise drops in stores, wholesale accounts and distributors ●Provided art and creative direction, including visual look and feel guidelines, for digital/e commerce, art-directed photoshoots and provided creative direction for press events and tradeshows at Pitti Uomo, Italy.
An LA-based denim brand with global distribution. Visual Merchandising Manager – EMEA Working for the LA-based Visual Director, acted as the European representative advising the US team on product and brand needs and then providing appropriate brand translation to stores in EMEA. ●Drove consistent visual merchandising standards for 17 stores (flagship, standard full price and outlets) ●Supported the UK Wholesales Team to drive consistent visual standards across their key accounts (Harrods, Harvey Nichols and Selfridges) ●Visited the US offices monthly to work with the US visual team on product selection, floor-sets and window campaigns that were appropriate for the EMEA market ●Provided art direction and visual direction for non-store events and activities: photoshoots, showrooms and PR events
A US Footwear and Apparel Brand with global distribution Global Visual Merchandising Manager Responsible for visual merchandising for 600 stores worldwide through a team of 6 visual merchandisers ●Developed and implemented the new corporate brand at retail (product and visual storytelling), repositioned the assortments, reduced SKUs and created focus to better fit the brand and increase sales. Increased sales of up to 90% in some stores. ●Developed visual guidelines (including a film to guide the new visual strategy for retail) for franchise partners, wholesales accounts and distributors. ●Partnered with store design to create new store concepts that were unique to the individual locations, as well as developed a new design that won the 2009 Retail Design Award for Best Sustainable Store. ●Worked with the advertising agency to develop brand-appropriate seasonal campaigns and worked with the regions to ensure product being advertised was appropriately bought.
International Sports Brand with global distribution International Visual Merchandising Manager Responsible for driving visual merchandising standards across all stores worldwide and providing art and creative direction to product and marketing teams ●Drove new look and feel for stores and wholesale shop-in-shop as the brand pivoted from sport to sports lifestyle across owned and operated, franchise and joint ventures ●Supported the launch of new international flagship stores (30+) to ensure new strong presentation and visual look to support the brand repositioning ●Developed and implemented visual merchandising plans to consistently deliver this new look and feel in all stores. Sales increases of up to 40% following re-merchandising activity: assortment and look and feel ●Briefed and advised senior management team on all aspects of visual merchandising for wholesale accounts ●Provided art direction at fashion shows, photo shoots, PR events and global sales meetings
Provides visual and creative direction to fashion brands that are looking to reposition and pivot ●Re-worked store look and feel to reposition the brand. Developed a new visual merchandising strategy, created new graphics and evolved the interior design. Reviewed the product line and provided direction to reduce SKUs and create more focus (Woodland, an outdoor-based fashion brand, India) ●Re-imagined the store's look and feel with shops and vignettes to up-level the brand. Supported the supervision of the construction work to guarantee a quality finish with a limited budget of 110,000 Euros. Led the visual and creative direction for in-store events and launches of Superdry, Essentiel, Denim Walls, Spring 2016 and the 'Do Something Campaign' (Cameleon Famous Clothes, Belgium) ●Developed vision for the interior design of this 'house-like' store. Worked with the architect on the interior details: colour palettes, furniture and fittings (Cifonelli, a French bespoke tailor brand, UK) ●Coached and led the product teams to shift the merchandise assortment to solid collections. Started with the average-size store and the desired look and feel; rationalised the 1500+ SKUs into a cohesive collection for in-store merchandise flow. Trained the buying and store teams. (Gloria Jeans, Russia) ●Co-developed retailing concept for this new lounge/retail space – developed retail layout, created a product strategy and guided innovative furniture design (3Den, Hudson Yards, NYC) Industry
Responsible for the visual merchandising of 15 stores and store look and feel: visual, furniture, fixtures and music across the UK, France and Spain.
Responsible for managing the overall look and feel of the flagship stores through a team of 4 visual merchandisers and managing a budget of $960,000.
Responsible for training and directing 6 staff members to create visual displays for windows and stores for Giorgio Armani, Emporio Armani, Le Collezioni, Donna Karan, DKNY, and Guess brands.