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• Guess Industry Week
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  • Part 3

Youngest Design Director in the History of GUESS?

When GUESS? Design Director Melissa Paline stood up in front of a room packed with FIDM students and staff the question on almost everybody's mind was, "What do you do on a given day as a Design Director for GUESS?." Melissa's response was, "It's not what I do, but what don't I do as a Design Director." She says that her job is very fast-paced and demanding but a great experience. When a job requires you to plan three to four seasons ahead, you must not only possess skill and talent, but you have to be motivated and love what you're doing. Melissa's motivation and passion for her field has helped her in each step of her journey to becoming the youngest design director for one of the country's largest clothing manufacturers.

While Melissa attended college, she worked as an intern during her summer breaks. Melissa expressed how internships are a great thing because they give you a really good "taste" of the industry. She explained, "School is wonderful and you learn a lot, but I think that you need to get out there and be on a team and see what it's like. Really experience it before you go into the industry."

After college, she worked as an assistant for a small clothing manufacturing company cutting swatch cards for about a year. Her hands always hurt, but Melissa knew that this was only the first of many steps along her career path. She said that if you're really passionate about something you need to keep going step by step. Melissa moved on to researching fabrics, illustrations, and doing tons of flat sketches. She also gained experience working with the patternmakers and running the company sample room - which is a big part of her current position. As a director, you have to keep up with the pattern makers and sewers by making sure you have the materials, patterns, and sketches needed to complete the project. Melissa explained, "I juggle a lot of different things at once. The amount of things that go on during a given day is endless." The experience gained at that manufacturing company was priceless and it gave her the skills and confidence to go on and start her own business.

Melissa partnered with a friend and designed clothes for approximately three to four years. Owning her own business exposed her to a very broad spectrum of the industry. She learned everything from production, to shipping, to working with the department stores and specialty boutiques. It was a great experience because she was able to get feedback about her product and really learn the market.

Then she experienced a strong desire to conquer a bigger company, and Melissa followed that desire to California where she got a job working for BCBG in their Parallel division. She was there for about six months and then moved to GUESS?, where she's been for the past three years.

Melissa started out at GUESS? as a Senior Designer, and for her 30th birthday, she was promoted to Design Director by her supervisor. That promotion makes Melissa the youngest Design Director in the history of GUESS?. While proud of that fact, she still remembers that it took a long time to get there, and the only way was to build on her passion for the industry.

As a Design Director, Melissa heads a division of GUESS? where the purpose is to design fashions that are on the forefront of each season. Melissa's division is always designing ahead. When the Spring 2000 collection is being launched, plans for Spring 2001 are well into development. There is an enormous amount of research that must be done, and Melissa travels far and wide to collect it. Melissa is witness to the evolution of fashion in every major fashion center in the world, viewing runways and shopping in cities like London, Florence, and Tokyo. She travels with five or six other Design Directors, and through what they experience they begin to get a vibe of what's happening and what's next in fashion. She says the more you do it, the better you get at knowing what to focus on. Melissa says her division gets a lot of its influence from the runway and a couple of "key" designers, but what has been the most inspirational tool is the Internet. Melissa highly recommends Worth's Global Style Network which is the most extensive, up-to-date fashion research tool on the Internet. Worth's Global Style Network is available in FIDM's research center on the Los Angeles campus. Melissa says that numerous things set a climate in fashion and you must be alert and a good researcher to make sense of what may evolve into a trend.

Melissa commented that, "Designers work really hard - you never stop working. You have to be passionate, and if you have the passion, you're going to go forward."