Erika Opalski

Responsible for designing knits, jackets, fleece, & walk shorts. Manage styles from Concept to SMS, approve fabric, lab dips & strike offs. Work closely with design Director and developers to create a strong sellable line that is true to the O’Neill brand.

Maintained line plan and ensured accuracy throughout the season while adhering to the calendar deadlines. Analyzing sales figures, customer reactions, and market trends to anticipate product needs of the consumer. Built calendar for design and merchandisings key dates that align with the company goals

Responsible for designing full men’s lifestyle collections (polo,shirts,shorts outerwear, wovens & capsules) where I continued to push the brand forward. Worked directly with the design director & president to create the seasonal color palette & prints. Designed our top key styles in the company history resulting in several vendors adding multiple color-ways on replenishment orders for major box retailers such as Nordstrom.

Functioned in a unique position where the crossover between development and production merged. Maintained constant communication with account managers and factories to ensure lab-dips, strike-offs and all samples were approved for quality and arrived on time for key accounts with Kohl's, Walmart & Target.

Part of a multi-functional team, which designs, develops and manufactures costumes for Disney parks worldwide • Grew the tech design team into a full department in order to establish consistent samples and SAP documentation • Assisted the designer with storyboards, fabric development & prints and attending fabric trade shows for sourcing • Kept in constant contact with our vendors for delivery dates, lab dips, shipping, strike-offs and customs clearance & PO’s • The biggest achievement was redesigning and developing the fabrics for all the princess in the parks worldwide

Part of a dynamic and creative design team that specializes in men’s active wear golf apparel • Executed designs, color-ups of existing artwork as well as original print patterns with direction from VP of Design • Responsible for creating all tech packs/mill sheets and supported the design process to ensure we hit specific directional goals, target pricing and deadlines

Part of design team creating a young contemporary line for a wholesale fashion company • One of the head designers responsible for launching the first collection & store opening with proven sales in best selling styles • Executed designs from inception to completion. Also responsible for tracking samples, lab-dips and artwork approval • Traveled to China to communicate with factories, source fabric and trims, and follow up with new and current production