Portus Raymond was born in Trinidad and Tobago and developed a love of sketching from a young age. He received his BFA in design from Parsons in 1993. Raymond has over 20 years of experience in fashion design and product development, working for companies like Calvin Klein, Polo Ralph Lauren, Gap, and Express. He is currently looking for a new position where he can apply his design skills and experience.

1. Portus Raymond
80 E 116th
St apt# 505
New York, NY 10029
cell. 917 698 4381
e-mail: portaray@aol.com
rayport77@gmail.com
Born in Trinidad and Tobago, to a mother that was a seamstress by profession and adding my
love of sketching; my chosen profession seemed per destined and that was cemented by my first
glimpse of Vogue at age 12. I took the first step towards my chosen profession when a friend who
was a graduate from FIT made me his assistant. At age 25, I came to the US to study at Parsons,
where I received my BFA in design in 1993.
A freelance assignment with Ann Taylor led to a full-time position with the Kazu Apparel Group,
which developed silk prints for Ann Taylor, mostly in Hong Kong and Korea. I handled the entire
process of new product development, working directly with sample-makers, trim and fabric
vendors, and with print development houses in the US and overseas. I reported directly to the
Director of Production/Development and learned much during my 18 months at this job.
Next, I was hired by Elaine Chaloner, design director at cK Calvin Klein bridge line to be one of
the designers. Using PDM systems, then in their infancy, I shepherded new designs by
organizing information flow to merchandising, technical design, production and the licensee in
Japan. After one year, I developed my own computer-based line-charting system, which the
department head used to coordinate the work of the design, technical and factory team members.
This done, I was given the added task of fitting the licensee’s entire product line. cK helped me
refine my design aesthetic and hone my organizational and computer skills. Also at cK, I became
comfortable with working internationally across many disciplines and several countries to make a
project a design success. I did this both through direct contact and information-system
coordination.
From there, I moved on to Polo Ralph Lauren’s wholesale men’s knits as a freelancer. The
company was then moving to Web PDM, which solidified my PDM knowledge base. While he
headed the knit line, Ernesto Ramirez asked me to work on the line design. As senior designer, I
had an assistant and freelancer reporting to me, and worked again with the entire gamut of
product development contributors, both in this country and abroad. The only aspects I did not
oversee were volume and margins because Ralph Lauren--like Calvin Klein--wanted the
design/new product team to focus on the brand aesthetic alone.
Also while at Polo, I was pro bono guest instructor of first year students and guest design critic
for junior-year students at Parson. I helped the juniors create a silhouette, which won the Silver
Thimble Award and was shown at a student fashion show.
After experience gained in men’s wear at Polo, I decided to return to my first love, women’s
wear. I assembled a women’s wear portfolio and presented it to Gap as examples of my design
aesthetic, which combines the comfortable organic feel of Donna Karan clothing with Calvin
Klein’s minimalist simplicity. This was exactly the look sought by Austyn Zung who needed a
designer to head the launch of the new Vocabulary collection in the newly created Forth and
Town division. This was a career peak for me. It called upon all my creative skills along with my
analytical and organizational abilities. An associate designer, assistant designer and freelancer
reported to me. With a merchandising colleague, I developed a line chart system still in use at the

2. company, I believe. I took a hands-on approach to fabric development, technical design, CAD
design, merchandising and production, keeping the overall project on schedule.
Since the closing of Forth & Towne, I had consulted with several companies and started work at
Express in 2008 through a former colleague Sue Browning. At Express I worked as a direct report
to Sue Browning, the departmental head of Fabric R&D, Trim, Knits and Sweaters for
Men’s/Women’s and Prints. My primary function is as manager for Print’s on knit and woven
substrates for the Women’s’ department. I was brought in to facilitate streamlining the print
request process, comments and approvals to be more efficient but keeping the design esthetic
viable; all of which is communicated to the overseas offices based in Asia as well as directly with
the print mills. I worked in tandem with the other fabric manager to counter-develop core base
fabric for print with companies print vendors to better leverage and maximize the use of the print
screen that has been developed.
This information was made accessible to cross-functional companywide through the
customization of a cataloguing program, Extensis. Presently I am working with our IT department
to customize a new cataloguing system that will allow company and associated vendor up to date
access to approvals and comments. **
I am now looking for a long-range position to which my skill set can be applied bringing the
acquired knowledge to my first love Clothing Design. Where my true value and strengths excels.