Luxury fashion company Emilia Wickstead has a fabulous role supporting a prestigious Creative Director in London.

The successful applicant will manage the Creative Director’s time in order to facilitate business-critical issues and support them personally in all aspects of their personal and domestic life. The ability to juggle both with speed, efficiency and a positive approach and attitude, in addition to being supremely organised, will ensure you're successful in this role.

The role will take on occasional project work as well as more involvement in company-wide meetings to ensure that you understand what is needed from them with your support.

Duties & Responsibilities of the PA/EA:

General:

• Work in partnership with them to manage every element of their personal and professional diary, agenda and events schedule.
• Support the planning and execution of projects, key events, client engagement and travel to ensure the smooth running of day-to-day interactions both at home and at work.
• Build a strong understanding of their priorities to ensure they can spend their time focusing on the highest value activities and where their team need them the most.
• Keep a step ahead by always knowing what and where they need to be and making it happen.
• Confidently solve issues or create solutions in their absence. 
• Build strong relationships with the leadership team and department heads to bring order and planning while retaining flexibility.
• Ensure strong department connectivity by embedding effective process and information sharing.
• In collaboration with our teams on a variety of business projects, e.g. LFW, cost savings and efficiency projects, optimising our systems and processes, to name a few.  
• Ensure their work and all workflows run smoothly throughout the organisation through strong engagement and communication across teams and leaders.
• Assist in organising company-wide communication and events.

Planning and Scheduling:

• Prioritise their time to spend on highest value activity, e.g Design, bespoke appointments, press, etc. 
• Strategic planning of their diary to make sure that business needs are met and prioritised
• Ensure their days and weeks run smoothly so they know both what each day holds and where they need to be and when and with whom.
• Manage their professional and personal diary and align personal and professional commitments as needed. 
• Act as the first, helpful point of contact to manage their time. Build a relationship so you can confidently filter and prioritise enquiries and activities as necessary; both internally and externally if appropriate 
• Help with administrative tasks management, including expenses and other such needs 
• Support to co-ordinate weekly Department Head meetings to include briefing attendees on expectations and help with preparation for a successful meeting.  
• Organise professional and personal travel and accommodation during the week and occasional weekends (domestic and international). 

Coordination :

• Through planning, communication and processes develop and ensure a smooth flow of work
• Build strong relationships with departments and ensure a smooth flow of communication 
• Ensure high-quality meetings and engagements
• Keep an eye on personal workspace, ensuring it's well organised and tidy, including all filing and managing archives 
• Fashion Week 
• Work with the Marcomms team to support with production from the EW side. 
• Run BOH for the day with smooth communication in the lead-up to the event.  You will work with the chosen production team to be the point of contact for logistics from the EW side and work cross-departmentally to make this work for everyone.

Meeting Planning and Events:

• Organise internal and external business meetings. 
• Schedule and arrange lunches, afternoon teas, breakfast meetings and events for Creative Director.  In conjunction with PR/Operations, help to organise larger-scale lunches and events as required, including building a guest list database, choosing event themes, coordinating RSVPs and invitations as needed. 
• Be the port of call for all and any events where they would be present or need to sign off.  Anything from trunk shows to store events that would need sign-off.
• Research and source details of events as needed. 
• Support them, PR and store, on private client events, PR events or launches to ensure their smooth running and full engagement
• Be on hand as needed leading up to and during events to ensure their smooth running 

Communication and Engagement 

• Manage their time with clients and meeting schedules. 
• Regular briefing and debriefing to ensure they are up to speed. 
• Communicate their availability and whereabouts to the wider team to keep everyone updated on events and schedules as needed. 
• Work in partnership with PR to brief them prior to meetings on attendees, topics to be covered (interviews; press).    
• Take notes at the weekly Ops meeting, circulate to them and the wider team in order to see what the company's priorities for the week are and ensure anything that needs sign-off is reached.
• Follow up with HoD’s to make sure that these are actioned ahead of the next meeting to not hold up the team against the critical path. 
• Create letters, reports, presentations and draft correspondence. 
• Co-ordinate thank you notes, client gifts and develop ways to maintain their and the brand’s strong client relationships 
• Operate proactively and without much supervision, anticipating needs and following through. 
• Build a strong relationship with their personal contacts as needed to easily manage their home and work commitments. 

Personal Co-ordination and Administration:

• Email management (business and personal). This includes daily management of incoming emails, including filtering and drafting responses. It is vital that they are aware when client or important personal emails need urgent responses. 
• Ensuring their daily welfare: refreshments, lunch, etc. 
• Co-ordination of life at home, ordering things required by the family, booking holidays, etc. 
• Booking flights and ensuring they have travel documents for all trips.  Keeping track of when passports, visas, ESTA, and her Global Entry need to be renewed 
• Liaising with their household staff to ensure they are aware of any activity at the house and the movements of the family and guests. 
• Personal admin. This includes being flexible and quick to act on any personal requests. 
• Liaising with household contractors including the maintenance team, plumbers, electricians and staying on top of general repairs. 
• Organising occasional events and dinners at their home. This includes liaising with the florist, caterers, and household staff, as well as handling guest lists and invitations. 
• Organising birthday cards and gifts for friends and family 

Ad Hoc:

• Cover for the Office Manager in their absence
• Occasional need to transport their children or supervise in an emergency situation, e.g. when the nanny is ill
• Occasional need to walk the family dog in an emergency situation, e.g. when the dog walker is ill

What Emilia Wickstead is looking for:

• Experience as a PA/EA
• Able to operate in a calm and composed manner
• Polite but firm to ensure, where possible, plans and schedules can be followed
• A real team player and build strong relationships while maintaining the utmost discretion to operate confidentially and discretely in high-profile situations
• Supreme organisational skills
• Energetic and confident
• Fast and efficient
• Dynamic
• Accurate
• Not precious
• Agile and flexible
• The right to work in the UK.
• A creative background is a plus.

Application

Apply with a CV and a cover letter outlining your suitability and interest.

If you do not hear back within 2 weeks, unfortunately you have not been successful.