Gemma Metheringham has over 25 years of experience in the fashion industry. She has held several leadership roles at Karen Millen where she helped grow annual sales from $110 million to over $460 million. As Chief Creative Officer, she led a brand repositioning project that increased global consistency and differentiation. She created new range structures that maximized cultural differences across 60 countries. Metheringham has consistently delivered beautiful, commercially successful collections and driven business growth throughout her career.

1. Gemma Metheringham
A highly-motivated, creative, strategic-thinker who combines business objectives and design vision to
deliver product collections that meet financial and brand targets. A succinct communicator of inspiring and
engaging vision that gives a clear sense of purpose to people and teams, creating brand clarity and
consistency.
Key Achievements
 Commercially designing and delivering beautiful products to target audiences at volume and price.
 Consistently designing and delivering Karen Millen collections driving turnover growth from $110 million (2004) to
$460 million (2015), growing international sales from 10% to 65% of sales volume.
 Led a total brand positioning project in 2012, identifying the need for global brand perception consistency and a
clearly differentiated offer in the bridge-brand market in preparation for the next phase of the business growth.
 Created a new range structure delivering global brand consistency, maximising climatic and cultural difference
across 60 countries with collections targeting hot weather, Ramadan, Ede & Chinese New Year.
 Successfully recruited, built and retained a team totally focused on delivering beautiful quality clothes that enjoyed a
98% nett promoter score.
Chief Creative Officer and Executive board member 2012 – Date
Karen Millen
Annual sales c.US$460m, 100 Staff (direct & indirect)
Achievements
 Led a total brand repositioning project in 2012, identifying the need for global brand perception consistency and a
clearly differentiated offer in the bridge-brand market in preparation for the next phase of the business growth.
 Increasing the number of new Karen Millen customers and re-engaging the existing customer-base, especially in
the UK. Increasing the turnover from US$420 million to US$460 million in the period.
 Created a new range structure, delivering global brand consistency, maximising climatic and cultural difference
across 60 countries with collections targeting hot weather, Ramadan, Eid & Chinese New Year.
 Clarified the brand perception internally around essence, purpose and culture; feeding into store design and the
structure and balance of the collections.
 Delivered high-impact fashion campaigns with David Bailey and a US style.com campaign with ‘Game of Thrones’
star Sophie Turner to maximise a moderate marketing budget. Generated customer feedback of ‘Really changed
my perception’ of Karen Millen and ‘Playing with the big boys’.
 Created highly successful PR and new customer demand in 2013 by delivering a pop-up atelier retail concept with
Selfridges; seasonally delivering limited-edition, trend-led collections showcasing quality and creativity that took
double the budgeted sales value.
 Created high brand-desirability and caché by selling out all client appointments in 1 day for the 3-week pop-up
season.
 Successfully extended the pop-up concept to Galleries Lafayette Paris, Brown Thomas Dublin and Bloomingdales
59th
Street & Miami; all exceeding targets, with S/S 15 art atelier collection selling out globally.
Joint Managing Director and Creative Director 2009 – 2012
Karen Millen
Annual sales c.US$420 million, 67 Staff (direct & indirect)
Achievements
 Successfully discharged Investor relations, Financial PR and Financial structures, and trading / margin implications
portfolio at Board level, in addition to the Creative Director mandate.
 Successfully maintained on-time collection design and delivery of c.750 styles per season.
 Took on challenging relationships with Harrods, Selfridges and Brown Thomas, personally turning-around a highly
negative exit position very successfully.
 Delivered LfL growth through the project to turnaround the top30 Karen Millen stores where c.70% of profit is made,
changing the strategy on how these are serviced.

2. Gemma Metheringham
Creative Director 2006 – 2009
Karen Millen
Annual sales c.US$350 million (2010), 55 Staff (direct & indirect)
Achievements
 Consistently designed and delivered Karen Millen collections and marketing material driving turnover growth from
$190million (2006) to $350 million (2010).
 Traded the brand along-side the Commercial Director with minimal markdowns and discounting.
 Successfully recruited, built and retained a team totally focused on designing and delivering beautiful quality clothes
that enjoyed a 98% nett promoter score.
 Generated very low staff churn by embracing an honest, motivational, straight-forward, talented, accountable,
equipped and supportive culture.
 Started building a creative community in 2007 as a Graduate Fashion Week mentor, running a year-long protégé
programme for 3-5 people increasing their onward employability (ongoing as at 2016).
 Took Karen Millen stably through the Mosaic Fashions pre-pack administration, holding both supplier and staff
engagement and maintaining supplier relations and the team successfully.
Design Director 2004 – 2006
Karen Millen
Annual sales c.US$190 million, 46 Staff (direct & indirect)
Achievements
 Successfully managed the integration of the Karen Millen business into Mosaic Fashions.
 Maintained process, quality and brand differentiation under 50% staff churn in 6-months due to company relocation,
successfully integrating new teams in atelier, product development and merchandising.
 Resisted pressure to conform, successfully retaining design-led working and bridge-brand positioning.
 Created the first Karen Millen PR and Marketing function with the Mosaic Marketing Director. Now an 8-person
global function with a budget that has risen from £300k to £3 million.
 Successfully introduced a licenced product range including sunglasses, watches and jewellery.
Design Director 1999 – 2004
Karen Millen
Annual sales c.US$110 million, 10 Staff
Achievements
 Successfully structured and managed the design studio to design and deliver seasonal product collections of 750
styles / season.
 Initiated the footwear collection in 2000, worth 6% of total sales (2015).
 Initiated the denim collection in 2000, worth 6% of total sales (2015).
 Successfully launched a range of customised military jackets.
 Worked in a highly entrepreneurial culture delivering creativity and commerciality to rigorous timescales.
Design Manager, Womenswear 1996 – 1999
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Design Manager 1993 – 1996
Richards
Assistant Design Manager, Womenswear (Next directory) 1991 – 1993
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Designer, Men’s Knitwear (Next directory) 1990 – 1991
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Assistant Designer, Men’s Knitwear 1988 – 1990
Marks & Spencer