Stephen brings 23+ years of industry experience to the table. He has held Vice President and Senior Design Director positions at companies that range from manufacturing side to branded side: Luxury Designer to Fast Fashion markets, including Ralph Lauren, SIMON SPURR, Joe Fresh, Kent & Curwen, and Gieves & Hawkes. His approach to design is grounded with solid retail experience. Having worked in the buying offices of Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue prior to transitioning into design, he possesses a strong understanding and perspective on the creative process and what works and what doesn’t.
Through working in various start-up environments, Stephen has gained a full scope of the design process from brand development and initial concept to design, product development, and production of full lifestyle collections. As a result, his areas of expertise are far reaching and include outerwear, tailoring, shirting, cut and sew knits, sweaters, activewear, denim, woven bottoms, and haberdashery.
In his previous role, he oversaw Design and Product Development as VP of Men's and Boy's for Epic Group, a major manufacturing company based in Hong Kong, helping to set up their design office in New York. The range of US customers included Brooks Brothers, Nordstrom, Dillard's, Cremieux, Levi's, Dockers, Walmart, Uniqlo, Amazon, and Academy Sports + Outdoors, with average orders of 1-3 million units per style, per season. So he is well versed and highly experienced in managing high volume, high visibility environments.
Stephen's experience extends beyond menswear. In a past life, Stephen has also created, designed and launched a children’s wear brand called AOKO NOKO, which offered modern clothing for curious minds and playful spirits.
Currently, Stephen heads up his own branding and creative design consultancy called AN ISSUE OF DESIGN, LLC, where he has worked with notable menswear brands like ROBERT TALBOTT, to relaunch the California menswear brand with a rich history in sartorial mens clothing via sourcing in Italy, Romania, and Portugal, LOST DAZE, an avant-garde, luxury streetwear brand based in LA, to set up domestic sampling and production in New York City, 3SIXTEEN, a denim-rooted menswear brand based in NYC, to run development of their knitwear collection sourced in Peru, and AMIRI, a rapidly growing designer luxury sportswear brand based in LA, to build new categories and expand resources in Europe.