Assistant Designer - Womenswear Nightwear & Loungewear - Next Sourcing - 12 Months Fixed Term Contract
Requirements
Requires previous experience in apparel design and strong proficiency in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Candidates must demonstrate a creative design aesthetic and the ability to work effectively in a fast-paced retail environment.
Job Description
Working Pattern: 5 days a week onsite, with core hours between 8am to 6pm.
Ideal Start Date: October 2026
The Role
As an Assistant Womenswear Designer (Loungewear & Nightwear) at Next Sourcing, you will play a key supporting role in shaping the visual and aesthetic identity of our upcoming collections. This is a fast-paced, highly creative 12-month Fixed-Term Contract (FTC) with an ideal start date in October, where your day to day contributions will directly support what lands on the high street.
Working alongside our Designers and collaborating closely with in-house buying, sourcing, and supplier teams, you will help turn emerging global trends into commercial, elevated products that resonate deeply with the Next customer.
Next Sourcing are at the heart of finding, developing, and delivering the products our customers love, wear, and use every day. Located across the globe, our Next Sourcing teams specialise in all different parts of the sourcing operation, from design and technology to product development.
What You’ll Take On
- Support Concept Creation: Assist the design team in developing original concepts across Loungewear and Nightwear, reacting quickly to briefs and helping to prepare fast-turnaround, commercial range options.
- Trend & Colour Research: Gather global fashion trends, fabrications, and colour palettes to assist in building trend boards and inspiration for elevated, cosy, and stylish products tailored to the Next customer.
- CAD & Print Preparation: Produce clear, accurate CADs, technical flat drawings, and artwork files using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, applying hand painting techniques where needed to support unique print and graphic development.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Liaise daily with buyers, sourcing teams, and external factories to track sample development, update tech packs, and help ensure collections hit critical path deadlines.
- Sample & Range Management: Assist in preparing range presentations, managing sample fits and sign offs, and keeping sample rooms organised to support both core line development and capsule projects.
- Industry Travel: Travel to supplier visits, fabric fairs, and trend research trips as required to source inspiration and build relationships with manufacturing partners.
What You’ll Bring
- Design Aesthetic: A beautiful, feminine yet cool design handwriting with a strong eye for comfort and contemporary style.
- Relevant Experience: Previous experience (through internships, placement years, or entry-level roles within a retailer or supplier) supporting Loungewear, Nightwear, or related apparel design.
- Technical Skills: Strong proficiency in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, with solid CAD skills to bring garment shapes and artwork to life.
- Communication & Teamwork: A proactive, collaborative attitude with clear communication skills to work effectively with designers, buyers, and factory contacts.
- Organisation & Drive: Exceptional organisation, great attention to detail, and the resilience to stay focused and adaptable in a fast-paced retail environment.
Portfolios
To help us get a feel for your style, please attach a digital portfolio to your application. We are looking for work that demonstrates a sharp eye for the future of Nightwear & Loungewear, how your ideas can be commercially viable for NEXT, and showcases your direct design and CAD work. To help you put your best foot forward, we’ve put together a few top tips on what makes a portfolio stand out to our team.
Applications without a portfolio will not be considered.
Sponsorship
Candidates wishing to apply who would require sponsorship for this role will be required to meet the Home Office sponsorship requirements. For further information please see: https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa.
We encourage early applications for our roles, as our recruitment process begins as soon as the role is advertised. If we successfully fill the position, this advert may close earlier than planned.
At NEXT, we believe the best work happens when there are no barriers to collaboration. That’s why we are a Google-powered workspace. From your very first day, you’ll be using the full Google Workspace suite; Docs, Drive, and Meet, to stay connected and move fast.
If your previous experience is rooted in other software suites, don’t worry! We’ll point you to a digital Google toolkit the moment you join, packed with handy guides and insider tips to help you transition smoothly and hit the ground running.
#LI-Onsite
You know Next, but did you know we’re a FTSE-100 retail company employing over 44,000 people across the Next group. We’re the UK’s 2nd largest fashion retailer and for Kidswear we’re the market leader. At the last count we have over 450 stores, plus the Next Online and it’s now possible to buy on-line from over 80 countries around the world! So we’ve gone global!
- 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
- Profit-related bonus - based on company performance
- Management share options
- Company car or car allowance
- Private medical insurance
- Sharesave scheme - make savings from your net pay to buy NEXT shares at a discount
- Pension - fixed contribution rates from both an employer and employee perspective, but you're also able to make additional voluntary contributions (AVCs) if you wish to save more.
- Life assurance
- Group income protection
- Wagestream - helping you make the most out of your money
- Salary finance - offers access to affordable loans repaid through salary, simple savings and free financial education.
- 25% staff discount on most NEXT products - plus discount on other products
- Direct to work - NEXT orders delivered free to the office for collection
- VIP sale - early access to the NEXT sale
- Access to NEXT staff shops
- Octopus energy - like cycle-to-work, but for electric vehicles
- Free parking (excluding London locations)
- Travel2NEXT - bus services dependent on location
- On site dining facilities (excluding London locations)
- National and local discounts on goods and services - this includes things like discounted cinema tickets
- Wellhub - includes access to discounted gym membership
- Simply health - a healthcare subscription service
- Aviva Digicare Workplace+ healthcare service - 7 Free services including Digital GP appointments and an annual health check.
- Onsite GP - Leicester Head Office
- Onsite Physio - Leicester Head Office
- A range of dedicated 3rd party wellbeing partners
- Free eye testing - voucher to use at specific locations