Rachael Proud

I oversaw the total strategy and planning for the private label ready-to-wear fashion brand Raey at Matchesfashion.

The brand was successful and profitable from the first collection, and grew to be the largest brand on the site, in terms of both sales units and sale £ value - growing from an initial collection taking £500k through to £16mil.

I managed the design vision, strategy and teams scaling the brand and delivering key ROI. I owned all aspects of the visual identity of the brand, including product, size and fit, imagery and importantly, finished goods quality.

I led an engaged and enthusiastic team, we were self contained and did everything from research, design, sourcing, development, toiling, fitting, sampling and production ( using external manufacturers), we had in house merchandising righting the buy size, working with me on price architecture and margin and managing stock levels, in house quality control regularly visiting manufacturers and ensuring audits were up to date, marketing and up-load teams - all in house.

I partnered closely with CEO, CCO, CMO and all interested parties to ensure the brand was positioned correctly on site and in terms of their expectations and overarching targets. The aesthetic of the brand however was completely mine, and self contained - we had a 'this brand is ours' mentality and operated with that personal sensitivity and care at the front of our minds always.

I worked closely with manufacturers and mills to ensure quality and compliance and ethical standards were met, I continuously reviewed the assortment to ensure sales targets and profitability targets were met, trading product to maximise opportunities in best sellers and continuity lines etc.

Together we grew key high margin areas to become 70% of the business, allowing us to have higher fashion items to peak our loyal customer base's interest.

I am an excellent manager of people with the highest engagement score and best retention of team. in the business.

I love my teams, I love creating product and I love seeing sales reactions.

Instagram @raeyofficial

Christopher Kane was at the time a designer brand showing on London Fashion Week, it was The Show to see during LFW.

I facilitated and supported Christopher & Tammy Kane in bringing their ideas to the catwalk, Paris sales and finally through production to the clients.

I ran the entire process from research, sketching with Christopher & Tammy, sourcing fabric, product development - including 3D printing accessories, sourcing unusual trims, designing & developing embroideries etc.

I introduced new product categories, taking the business from being focussed on dresses, to widening the offer to include denim, knitwear, jersey and leather - allowing the wholesale buyers to buy more and present a more rounded offer.

Together with the CFO, I let the brand to a position where they could seek investment and investment was found from Kering group.

During my time at Topshop, it moved from being the cheap low fashion option on the high street, dwarfed by Dorothy Perkins, to the cultural behemoth of the fashion scene.

I began as a Buyers Admin Assistant and worked up through the ranks to be Senior Buyer and also Creative Consultant ( involved in conversations about brand, store, visual, product direction)

I was involved in many aspects of the brand during my transformative time there - to list a few...

*Designer and Senior Buyer Boutique ( a multi product mini brand within Topshop, which had a separate shop-within-shop in many of the stores including the Oxford Circus, London Megastore.

*Buyer for Designer Collaborations - working with Hussein Chalayan, Christopher Kane, Ashish, Johnathan Saunders, Meadham Kirchoff, Sofia Kokosalaki etc

*Buyer for Topshop Unique ( the LFW catwalk show, designed by the in-house Topshop design team, and selected/bought and brought to market by me)

*Launched and grew wholesaling the Topshop product and brand internationally - I travelled to New York and Tokyo to set up and launch the large wholesale partnerships there.

*Launched and worked closely with the innovative Private shopper scheme - the first on the high street

*Launched Topshop Shoes - the first shoe collection done my a multiproduct store on the high street

*was Buyer across many departments including Jersey, Denim, Skirts, Knitwear ( training within Topshop was to move across many departments to ensure a rounded view of the whole brand to better support the work we did as a whole)

It was an incredible time to be at a growing brand with a passionate leader and subsequently a passionate and driven team.