ASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Menswear / Active

BDA London | Full-time | London

BDA London is looking for an Associate Creative Director to lead menswear and active work with a sharper commercial and strategic lens, grounded in real retail experience.

This role is for someone who understands how product strategy, customer segmentation, and creative direction play out in the real world of retail and who wants to apply that thinking in a more strategic, advisory environment.

You’ll sit just below our Creative Strategy Director and work closely with our senior leadership team to raise the quality, clarity, and commercial relevance of our menswear and active output.

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THE ROLE

You’ll help clients bring clarity to product strategy where it matters most at range, customer, and division level.

A core part of the role is supporting brands with multiple divisions or channels operating in the same market, helping them define clear differentiation so their products aren’t competing for the same customer.

You’ll lead teams, shape client thinking, and ensure our creative work is grounded in logic, not trend alone.

This is a leadership role as much as a creative one.

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WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING

\t•\tLeading menswear and active client work with clear product and customer logic

\t•\tHelping clients define segmentation across brands, divisions, channels, or price tiers

\t•\tBringing commercial discipline to how insight, trend, and culture are translated into product strategy

\t•\tLeading and contributing to client workshops and strategic sessions

\t•\tLine managing and mentoring creatives within your category

\t•\tWorking closely with the Creative Strategy Director on higher-level strategic work

\t•\tChallenging briefs where work risks becoming generic, blurred, or trend-led without intent

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WHAT YOU’LL BRING

\t•\tExperience in retail, buying, merchandising, product, or range planning — now looking to apply that thinking in a more strategic, creative environment

\t•\tStrong understanding of customer segmentation and brand differentiation, particularly within multi-brand or multi-division groups

\t•\tAbility to spot where ranges, propositions, or price points are drifting too close together — and help reset that logic

\t•\tConfidence operating above individual products to shape portfolio-level strategy

\t•\tExperience leading teams and guiding creative output, not just producing work yourself

\t•\tComfort presenting to senior client stakeholders and challenging thinking constructively

Menswear and/or active experience is essential.

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WHY BDA

BDA London is a strategic creative consultancy working across fashion, lifestyle, and retail.

We’re in a period of deliberate change. We’ve restructured leadership, hired a new Creative Strategy Director, and are building a clearer, more commercially grounded way of working.

This role offers the chance to:

\t•\tStep into genuine creative leadership

\t•\tInfluence how strategy is shaped, not just executed

\t•\tWork closely with senior decision-makers on both client and business direction

\t•\tBe part of building the next phase of BDA

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IMPORTANT TO KNOW

This role will not suit someone who prefers loosely defined briefs or trend-led work without clear commercial and strategic intent.

You will need to be able to travel for 2 weeks per quarter for the first 12 months of your tenure.

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Interested?

Send your CV and portfolio to us. We’re looking for thinkers as much as creatives.

This job advert was developed with the help of ChatGPT. We’ve used it because the purpose of a job advert is to communicate the role clearly and precisely.

When you reply, we don’t need perfect communication. We’re more interested in getting a genuine sense of you. Short covering notes are absolutely fine. Spelling mistakes and rough edges are welcome.

We’d prefer responses not to be written by AI. We’re not looking for polish, we’re looking for glimpses of you, honesty, and the real person behind the application.

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