Jennifer Gagne
Creative Director / Design Director · JENNIFER GAGNE
Vancouver, BC
In My Own Words
I am a creative Design Director who loves the challenge of creating beautiful, functional products to improve users lives.
I specialize in intimates, foundations, performance outerwear and athleticwear design utilizing technical fabrications and construction methods, CLO3D and Adobe CS software.
I live an active lifestyle and love to travel and experience new cultures.
With 10 years experience working for brands such as Lululemon Athletica and Girlfriend Collective designing performance athleticwear, athleisure, swimwear and intimates. More recently I took on a Chief Creative Officer role building a new boutique athleticwear brand in the emerging Chinese activewear market.
As a dedicated and experienced College Professor with over 7 years experience, I am adept in creating powerful curriculum in the fields of technical and creative fashion design and in preparing students for success in the competitive fashion industry.
My career has allowed me to work extensively with suppliers in Sri Lanka, China and Vietnam, to develop proprietary fabrics, hardware and trims while acquiring strong technical construction and textiles expertise.
Work Experience
Contract Creative Direction AND Senior Designer
JENNIFER GAGNE2012 – Present
Specializing in Activewear, Intimates, Swim and Outerwear with various clients
Design Instructor
JOHN CASABLANCAS INSTITUTE2015 – Present
CLO3D, Adobe Illustrator, Collection Design, Textiles, Fashion Illustration, and Fashion History
Developed and implemented a new 8 week CLO3D design course and a 12 week Collection design course for the CORE Design program as well as retooled existing Fashion History, Textiles and Adobe Illustrator curriculum to create a more engaging and interactive classroom environment.
Provide one-on-one and written evaluations for student presentations, projects and assignments as well as draft and grade exams.
Design Director for XTEP Women's Training
XTEP CHINA2019 – 2021
for 6 consecutive seasons working with in-house development team to introduce 3L softshell, down/insulated, bonded quilting, moulded sports bras, seamless knitwear and bonded compression knits.
Design Director for XTEP Womens Training
XTEP CHINA2019 – 2021
for 6 consecutive seasons working with in-house development team to introduce 3L softshell, down/insulated, bonded quilting, moulded sports bras, seamless knitwear and bonded compression knits.
Chief Creative Officer of a new brand
HUIJIE GROUP2017 – 2020
under the LANGERIE intimates label which included full branding, market direction, consumer analysis, product design, design team mentorship and art direction of all marketing materials.
Chief Creative Officer of a new brand
HUIJIE GROUP2017 – 2020
under the LANGERIE intimates label which included full branding, market direction, consumer analysis, product design, design team mentorship and art direction of all marketing materials.
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GIRLFRIEND COLLECTIVE2015 – 2016
Partnered with owners Quang and Ellie to develop brand concept, design and develop the initial collection working with local and overseas patternmakers and sample sewers, sourced manufacturing, developed proprietary eco-friendly fabrics.
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SnowSports International and Outdoor Retailer Trade2014 – 2015
show coverage providing both micro and macro trend analysis and identifying the freshest brands and product at the show.
Lead Design
LULULEMON ATHLETICA2011 – 2012
for the lululemon lab, Assistant Design for lululemon athletica
Designed a full revamp of all intimates by launching the Light As Air(TM) and Mula Bandhawear(TM) lines using ultra-fine denier Japanese fabrics, adopted and commercialized a 5 year "in-the-making" bra from the Innovations department and designed an innovative collection of medium to high support, fully bonded bras in warp knit Sensitive® fabrics which was the first of it's kind in the market.
Relaunched swimwear using Sensitive® warp knit fabrics with bonded and free cut finishes. Expanded the top selling Ebb + Flow and Swiftly circular knit seamless collections with X-STATIC® yarns.
Partnered with local cycling influencers to design a commuter cycling collection well as co-designed and developed a full Road Cycling Kit to compliment the Lululemon + Specialized(TM) collaboration.
