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Q: What is your role at Jack Murphy?
A: Senior Designer at Jack Murphy.
Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself…
A: My name is Sinead Claxton. I studied fashion design at the Grafton Academy Dublin where I specialised in Tailoring and Bridal and Evening. I have worked in the industry for 15 years in many different roles. I have learned a lot along the way but feel I have even more to learn! I love working at Jack Murphy as it’s a small family business where I am surrounded by great team players and a very supportive atmosphere.
I believe that you are only ever as good as your last collection; your next collection should always be an improvement on your last.
Q. What’s your favourite thing about working at Jack Murphy?
A: Picking key colours – this is where the collection truly comes to life. This also goes hand-in-hand with fabric selections. The Jack Murphy team are fortunate enough to travel to Munich, Paris, New York, London and Shanghai to find up-and-coming fabrics. Getting to travel with a creative job is very important and massively helps with the development stage of the range.
Q: What does a typical day look like for you?
A: All designers will say the same thing – no two days are ever the same so that’s why it’s such an interesting role! It’s one of the few jobs that allows you to see all processes – from the starting point of a fabric swatch to when your design is being worn by a customer.
The top 10 things as a designer that you work on –
- Coordinating with suppliers on a daily basis
- Developing new styling
- Trend forecasting
- Creating CADs
- Preparing presentations for upcoming collections
- Reviewing what competitors are running
- Traveling abroad to visit suppliers, trade shows and fabric fairs
- Photo-shoots
- Research and development
- Creating one-off prints
Q: Where do you draw inspiration from?
A: Inspiration for me comes from so many different places, but mainly the outdoors.
The beautiful colours of the leaves on the tall trees and those which pepper the ground are enough to get the design juices flowing: the rich burgundies, the burnt oranges and the deep greens are all truly inspirational. The earthy tones really suit the Jack Murphy colour palette
People-watching is also an amazing way to come up with new designs.
Q. What kind of research goes into making the Jack Murphy collection?
A: There is a 6-month process involved in reviewing past designs and best-selling styles where we determine how to tweak or improve a classic style. We always pick a new theme for each season – the team decide on the best and most commercial colour palette for the season. Then we look at shapes and fabrics – we are currently very lucky to be working with Moons tweed, Halley Stevenson wax, cashmere mixes and extremely versatile and durable waterproof fabrics. We have team meetings every 3 weeks and discuss on-going development and the direction of the collection. As a designer, it’s great to be working with a team of people so the best ideas are brought to the forefront and it can only improve each collection.
Q: What makes Jack Murphy rainwear special?
A: We are known for are outstanding quality and durability. All of Jack Murphy’s designs are created at our head office in Dublin. From buttons, snaps and linings to hangtags packaging, everything is carefully picked and thought about by our design team. Love and care go into every style we design. We have been creating rainwear for nearby 25 years. Every year we go from strength to strength.
Q: What can we expect to see from Jack Murphy next?
A: We are focusing on our classic designs as the core of our Jack Murphy collection. We also have some very exciting cutting-edge fabrics that we are hoping to develop in the coming months. We are constantly developing original new printed lining CADS, trims buttons and new finishes to make our styles unique and different from our competitors. We at Jack Murphy love developing new fabric mixes that will flatter our existing best-selling blocks and experimenting with colour options.
Very exciting times ahead!
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