Fashion Recruitment Agencies
Hire permanent fashion, apparel and textile staff across India, the Gulf and Southeast Asia. We recruit designers, merchandisers, production managers, textile engineers and retail leadership for brands, manufacturers and exporters. Tell us the role, the product category, and the location, and we return a shortlist.
We match candidates to your product category, production environment and hiring requirements, helping you reduce unsuitable applications and reach qualified fashion professionals faster. The result is a focused shortlist built around the skills your business needs to deliver.
16+ Years Of Experience
550,000+ Placements Delivered
36+ Countries Served
350+ Expert Teams
50+ Top Level Positions
What Do Fashion Recruitment Agencies Do?
Fashion recruitment agencies find and place people across the full apparel supply chain, from design and merchandising through production, quality and retail. The category is broader than most buyers expect, and the halves of it barely overlap.
At one end sits brand-side hiring: designers, buyers, merchandisers and marketing staff at labels and retailers. At the other sits manufacturing-side hiring: textile engineers, production managers, quality heads and technical managers at the factories and exporters who actually make the product. A recruiter strong in one is rarely strong in the other, because the candidate pools, the geographies and the skills are different.
Alliance’s depth is on the manufacturing and merchandising side, across India, the Gulf, Vietnam and Bangladesh, with design and retail hiring alongside it. If you are hiring a creative director for a luxury house in Paris, we are not the strongest option, and we will say so.
We place permanent employees and also supply contract staff for seasonal peaks, sampling and production runs, and project cover.
For broader retail hiring, see our retail recruitment practice.
How We Recruit in Fashion and Apparel
Most fashion recruiters work from a brand-side network and treat manufacturing as an afterthought, which is why factory and sourcing roles sit open for months. We work the supply chain end directly, in the countries where garments are actually made. That means a merchandiser search in Tirupur or a technical manager search in Amman runs the same way a designer search in Mumbai does, rather than being outsourced to a local partner.
Fashion Recruitment Costs and Timelines
What It Costs:
Our fee is a percentage of the hire’s first-year salary, agreed before the search begins and payable when they start. No retainer for standard permanent placements. Cross-border hires requiring visa or relocation coordination sit at the higher end. For contract staffing, we agree a monthly or hourly rate per worker in writing before anyone starts.
How Long It Takes:
Domestic hires in India and the Gulf: shortlist within 24–48 hours of an agreed brief, offer typically within 4 to 6 weeks. Cross-border hires follow the same shortlist timeline, but visa processing in the destination country commonly adds 6 to 16 weeks to the start.
Every permanent placement carries a 90-day replacement guarantee, counted from the day the candidate accepts your offer.
What Our Fashion Recruitment Service Includes
Design and Product Development Hiring
Fashion designers, assistant designers, textile designers, CAD specialists and product developers, across womenswear, menswear, kidswear and technical apparel.
Merchandising and Sourcing
Merchandisers, senior merchandisers, sourcing managers and buying staff, the category where manufacturing-side clients most often come to us and the one with the thinnest supply.
Production, Technical and Quality
Production managers, technical managers, industrial engineers, quality heads and textile engineers for garment factories and export houses.
Retail and Commercial Leadership
Store and area managers, retail operations heads, VP merchandising and commercial directors for brands and retail groups.
Executive Search for Fashion Leadership
Board-level and head-of-design mandates are run by our fashion headhunters through direct approach.
Permanent and Contract Hiring
Most fashion hires join your payroll as permanent employees. Contract staffing is also available for seasonal demand, sampling and production peaks, and project cover; before anyone starts, we agree in writing the employment arrangement and who holds the employer obligations, so your compliance position is settled in advance.
Our Fashion Recruitment Process
Step 1: Role and Category Call (45 minutes, within 2 working days)
We establish the role, the product category, whether the position is brand-side or manufacturing-side, the salary band and the location. Product category matters more here than in most sectors, because a knitwear merchandiser and a woven merchandiser are not interchangeable.
Step 2: Market and Supply Assessment
We map realistic availability in your market at your budget, and where the domestic pool cannot deliver, which sourcing country can.
Step 3: Sourcing and Portfolio Screening (shortlist within 24–48 hours of an agreed brief)
Direct approach in the relevant market. For design roles, we review portfolios before shortlisting. For technical and production roles, we verify factory type, machine familiarity, and volume experience. Three to five candidates with assessment notes.
Step 4: Interviews and Technical Assessment
We coordinate scheduling across time zones. Where you want a design brief or a technical exercise, we arrange it.
Step 5: Offer, Notice and Start
We manage the offer and stay engaged through notice and through visa processing for cross-border hires.
Step 6: Post-Placement Follow-Up
We check in after the candidate starts to confirm the role, expectations, and working arrangements are aligned, giving you a chance to address any early issues quickly.
Need the Right Fashion Talent?
Hiring for design, merchandising, production, or retail roles? Send us the position and hiring requirements, and we’ll help you identify the right talent for your team.
Fashion Markets and Categories We Recruit For
Garment Manufacturing and Export
Our deepest category. Production, technical, quality, and merchandising roles for export houses and manufacturers.
Textile and Fabric
Textile engineers, fabric technologists and mill leadership, including technical and performance textiles.
Apparel Merchandising and Buying
Merchandisers and buying staff across knits, wovens and denim, where category-specific experience determines fit.
Fashion Design and Product Development
Designers across categories, screened on portfolio rather than CV.
Retail and Brand Operations
Store, area and regional management, plus commercial leadership for brands and retail groups.
India
Our largest fashion market by volume. Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Tirupur, Ludhiana and Surat, spanning design, merchandising and manufacturing.
United Arab Emirates and the Gulf
Dubai, Doha, Kuwait and Riyadh, covering retail leadership, design and textile technical roles. See our UAE practice.
Vietnam, Bangladesh and Southeast Asia
Export manufacturing leadership, production management and sourcing, for groups operating across multiple production countries.
Jordan and the Levant
Garment and light-industry searches in Amman and Zarqa are run with our Jordan recruitment agency team.
Who We Recruit For in Fashion
You Are a Manufacturer or Exporter and Merchandisers Keep Leaving
The highest-turnover role in the supply chain, and the one most agencies screen badly because they test product knowledge with generic questions.
Your Technical or Production Role Has No Local Candidates
Specialist categories like seamless, performance textiles or technical outerwear have global candidate pools measured in hundreds. The search has to start internationally.
You Are Opening Production in a New Country
Several hires at once in a market where you have no employer brand, usually needing a production head first and a team behind them.
You Need a Designer and CVs Tell You Nothing
Everyone’s CV lists the same software. The portfolio and the category experience are what decide it, and those need reviewing before you spend interview time.
You Are a Retail Group Scaling Store Leadership
Multiple store and area managers on a rollout schedule, to a consistent standard.
You Need a Confidential Senior Replacement
The incumbent is still in post and the fashion industry is small enough that an open search becomes known quickly.
The Alliance Recruitment Agency Advantage in Fashion Recruitment
We Recruit Where Garments Are Actually Made:
In India, the Gulf, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Jordan, we source and screen candidates directly in the market; in the UAE, any contract staff we supply are employed through MOHRE-licensed partners.
Category-Specific Screening, Not Generic Fashion Screening:
Knits, wovens, denim and technical apparel are different skill sets. We scope the category before sourcing, which is why our shortlists convert rather than generating second rounds.
Portfolio Review Before Shortlist for Design Roles:
You see the work before you spend interview time.
16+ Years and 550,000+ Placements Delivered Across 36+ Countries:
Cross-border hiring is the core of the business, which matters in an industry whose supply chain spans a dozen countries.
Executive Search Depth for Fashion Leadership:
CEO, CCO, managing director and head of design mandates run confidentially with blind candidate briefing.
We Tell You When We Are the Wrong Firm:
For luxury brand-side creative roles in Paris, Milan or New York, specialist Western agencies are stronger than us. We will say so rather than run a search we are unlikely to win.
Why Choose Alliance Recruitment Agency Among Fashion Recruitment Agencies
Fashion recruitment splits into two businesses that share a name and almost nothing else. Brand-side hiring is about creative judgement, network and taste, and it concentrates in a handful of Western cities. Supply-chain hiring is about product category, factory type, volume experience and technical depth, and it concentrates in India, South and Southeast Asia, and the Gulf. Agencies that claim both usually mean the first.
We are the second, deliberately. The merchandiser who can run a knitwear programme across three factories, the technical manager who understands seamless machinery, the textile engineer who has worked at your fabric weight: those searches are ours, and the market we run them in is where the product is made.
Our Client Reviews
We needed a senior merchandiser with experience in our product category, but the candidates coming through general recruitment channels were rarely a close fit. Alliance understood the difference and focused the search on people with relevant category and sourcing experience. The shortlist was much more useful, and we filled the role without extending the search.
We were expanding our production operations and needed someone who understood both factory processes and quality requirements. Alliance asked detailed questions about our manufacturing setup before sourcing candidates. The profiles we received were relevant to our environment, and the recruitment process was much easier for our management team.
Our biggest challenge was finding a design professional whose portfolio matched our customer and price point, not just someone with a strong-looking CV. Alliance reviewed candidates against the actual brief and helped us assess the portfolio and technical experience. We hired someone who understood our product from the beginning and fitted well into the team.
Awards
Meet Our Leadership Team
Molly Anderson
Franchise Lead | Recruitment Franchise
Alex George
General Manager | RPO & Enterprise Recruitment
Nikki Miller
Head of Recruitment | Recruitment & Staffing
Frequently Asked Questions
Fashion recruitment agencies find and place staff across the apparel supply chain, from design and merchandising through sourcing, production, quality and retail leadership. They screen portfolios and category experience rather than CVs alone. Alliance has particular depth in garment manufacturing, export houses and merchandising across India, the Gulf, Southeast Asia, Jordan and East Africa.
Designers, textile designers, merchandisers, sourcing and buying staff, production managers, technical managers, industrial engineers, quality heads, textile engineers, and retail and commercial leadership up to managing director.
Yes, and it is our deepest category. We recruit production, technical, quality and merchandising staff for manufacturers and export houses across India, Southeast Asia, the Gulf and the Levant.
Yes. Alliance places permanent employees and also supplies contract staff for seasonal peaks, sampling and production runs, and project cover. The employment arrangement, who holds the employer obligations and the monthly or hourly rate are agreed in writing before anyone starts.
We recruit commercial, retail and supply-chain leadership for luxury and premium brands. For brand-side creative roles in Paris, Milan or New York, specialist Western agencies are stronger and we will say so.
Yes. We run confidential senior searches including CEO, CCO, managing director and head of design mandates, using direct approach rather than advertising.
By portfolio and category experience rather than CV. Software lists tell you almost nothing. We review work before shortlisting so you do not spend interview time on it.
India, the United Arab Emirates and wider Gulf, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Jordan and East Africa, plus cross-border placement into other markets.
Our fee is a percentage of the hire’s annual salary, depending on seniority, market and terms. It is agreed in writing before the search begins and payable only when the hire starts, with no retainer for standard permanent placements. Cross-border hires that need visa or relocation coordination sit at the higher end.
You receive a shortlist within 24–48 hours of an agreed brief, for domestic and cross-border searches alike. Domestic hires in India and the Gulf typically reach offer within 4 to 6 weeks, depending on interview rounds and notice periods. Cross-border hires follow the same shortlist timeline, but visa processing in the destination country commonly adds 6 to 16 weeks to the start date.
Yes. Multi-role builds run as a single coordinated search, typically starting with production leadership and building the team beneath them.
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