About Varley Clothing
Varley is a contemporary fashion brand for the modern woman. Founded in 2015 by husband-and-wife Lara and Ben Mead, we are an international, family-run business headquartered between London, Los Angeles, and New York.
We create year-round collections designed to build an elevated wardrobe for how women live and move. From knitwear and outerwear to everyday staples and active pieces, our collections blend style, function, and versatility.
Varley exists to instil quiet confidence through meaningful connections that enhance everything women already are. As women’s lives evolve, so do we.
Our international family-run team is 85% female, making us proud to be a brand for women, by women. We are guided by two core beliefs: the pursuit of quality in everything we do and looking after one another.
Dual-Site Assistant Visual Manager – Varley
Location: New York – Soho & Madison Avenue
Department: Retail
Reporting to: Store Manager – dotted line Visual Merchandising Manager
Role Overview
The Dual-Site Assistant Visual Manager (Dual-Site AVM) is a hands-on leader and brand ambassador working across our New York locations, currently SoHo and Madison Avenue, supporting both management teams in delivering commercial success while ensuring exceptional customer and team experiences.
This role combines the responsibilities of an Assistant Store Manager with Visual Merchandising leadership, acting as a commercial leader across both stores and driving the execution of Varley’s visual strategy in a way that supports trade, enhances customer experience, and maximises sales.
Highly floor-focused and operationally accountable, the Dual-Site AVM leads by example and ensures that visual merchandising never compromises customer service. They connect product, visual standards, operations, inventory, and commercial performance to identify opportunities and translate them into clear actions.
Working across two locations, the Dual-Site AVM ensures consistency in Varley brand and visual standards while recognising the individual trading patterns, customer behaviours, product performance, and local needs of each store.
The role partners closely with both Store Managers, the Visual Merchandising Manager (VMM), Retail Operations, and Stockroom (BOH) teams to ensure strong alignment between product, visual execution, customer experience, and store operations.
The Dual-Site AVM takes ownership in the absence of the Store Manager when working within the respective location. This role includes key-holder responsibilities and requires regular presence across both assigned stores.
Leadership Pillars
1. People Leadership & Team Development
- Lead from the shop floor, setting clear expectations and role clarity across FOH and BOH
- Inspire and motivate through fair, consistent, values-led leadership
- Foster a collaborative, accountable, and solution-focused culture
- Coach and develop teams across both locations through regular feedback and in-the-moment support
- Build strong working relationships with both Store Managers and their leadership teams
- Provide clear priorities during trading and non-trading periods and delegate effectively across service, VM, and operations
- Develop team capability in styling, product knowledge, visual execution, and customer experience
- Identify and share best practices across both locations to build confident, capable teams delivering consistently high standards
2. Customer & Brand Experience
- Champion a customer-first mindset, ensuring service is never compromised by tasks
- Deliver a consistent and elevated service experience across both locations
- Maintain a strong, visible presence on the shop floor, especially during peak trading periods
- Ensure both stores are always customer-ready, balancing service, product, operational, and visual priorities
- Lead by example in styling, product storytelling, clienteling, and customer engagement
- Recognise differences in customer behaviour between locations and support teams in responding appropriately while maintaining consistent Varley standards
3. Visual Merchandising & Brand Execution
- Execute VM strategy in line with brand guidelines across windows, mannequins, and shop floors in both assigned locations
- Ensure consistent execution of Varley visual standards while responding to the individual commercial needs of each store
- Ensure strong product placement and impactful visual storytelling
- Adapt displays based on trading patterns, customer behaviour, product performance, inventory depth, and local market needs
- Use visual merchandising to support newness, product storytelling, conversion, and basket building
- Identify opportunities to improve product visibility, outfitting, flow, and shopability
- Support execution of window changes, in-store features, campaigns, and seasonal updates
- Communicate VM priorities clearly and coach teams to consistently maintain elevated, commercially relevant, and customer-ready environments
4. Product Performance & Commercial Ownership
- Own product flow from BOH to shop floor, ensuring availability, replenishment, and strong presentation
- Analyse sales, product performance, and inventory across both stores to inform decisions
- Translate KPIs into clear, actionable priorities for each store team
- Ensure visibility and replenishment of bestsellers, newness, and key commercial products
- Identify size, colour, assortment, and inventory opportunities that may be impacting sales
- Partner with BOH teams to review stock levels, sell-outs, and opportunities
- Connect product performance and inventory insights to visual and commercial decisions
- Compare performance and opportunities across both locations where relevant, recognising differences in customer demand and trading patterns
- Share relevant product insights, customer feedback, and reporting with Store Managers, VMM, and central teams
5. Daily Operations & Floor Leadership
- Lead daily operations including Daily Planner, morning setup, and replenishment routines when working within each location
- Oversee stock processing including delivery, hanging, steaming, tagging, and replenishment
- Maintain high standards across shop floor and stockroom, ensuring environments are clean, organised, and safe
- Supervise teams during peak periods to ensure customer service and VM standards are upheld
- Investigate stock discrepancies and support loss prevention initiatives
- Step into duty management, including opening and closing, as needed within the store in which they are working
- Ensure compliance with operational policies, health & safety, and uniform standards
- Support Store Managers in balancing competing commercial, operational, customer, and visual priorities
- Maintain clear communication between both locations to support consistent and effective execution
6. Dual-Store Leadership & Consistency
- Effectively split working hours and operational focus across both store locations, prioritising time based on business, trading, and visual needs
- Assess each location through a commercial, customer, operational, and visual lens
- Identify key opportunities within each store and translate these into clear actions and follow-up
- Work with both Store Managers to maintain accountability for agreed visual and commercial actions
- Ensure consistency in Varley brand standards while allowing execution to respond appropriately to each store’s customer, product mix, and trading patterns
- Identify successful practices within one location that could positively support the other and facilitate knowledge sharing between both teams
- Provide visibility to the VMM and Store Managers on key opportunities, challenges, and progress across both locations
7. Collection Launches & Product Knowledge
- Support planning and execution of launches, campaigns, and seasonal rollouts across both locations
- Ensure both stores are ready for deliveries, VM updates, and launches, coordinating with BOH and shop floor teams for smooth execution
- Ensure teams understand key product stories, styling opportunities, and commercial priorities
- Deliver product briefings, training, and ongoing coaching
- Ensure access to lookbooks, product materials, and training tools to enable confident styling advice and brand storytelling
- Monitor launch performance and customer response across both locations, adapting presentation where appropriate
- Maintain a strong perception of newness across both stores
- Encourage cross-training across FOH and BOH to build flexibility
8. Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner with both Store Managers, Head of Retail, VMM, Retail Operations, Training, Inventory, Logistics, Brand, Marketing, and other relevant cross-functional partners to ensure alignment across commercial, operational, customer, and visual priorities
- Act as a key link between both store teams and central functions, ensuring clear and consistent communication
- Provide feedback on product performance, customer behaviour, VM execution, inventory, operations, and store-level opportunities
- Support collection launches, campaigns, training initiatives, product flow, and continuous improvement through effective cross-functional collaboration
Scope of Role & Decision Ownership
Own Across Both Locations
- Lead teams on the shop floor and ensure operational excellence when acting as duty manager
- Deliver visual merchandising execution and standards across both stores
- Own product flow, placement, visibility, and availability
- Identify and action commercial, product, and visual opportunities
- Maintain consistency of Varley brand standards across both locations
Key Skills & Experience / The Ideal Candidate
- Minimum 3 years’ experience in retail leadership, ideally across operations and visual merchandising
- Strong commercial awareness with the ability to link visuals to sales performance
- Proven ability to analyse data, product performance, and inventory
- Strong leadership, coaching, and communication skills
- Highly organised with strong operational and prioritisation skills
- Ability to manage priorities effectively across two store locations
- Ability to build strong relationships and influence teams across both locations
- A strong interest in the fashion industry, with a focus on styling and brand storytelling
- Experience in a fast-paced, high-volume retail environment
- Proficiency with POS, CRM systems, and retail reporting tools
- Ability to balance commercial, customer, visual, and operational priorities
- Agile, adaptable, and resilient, able to respond to changing retail priorities and business needs in a fast-paced environment
What Success Looks Like
- A customer-first environment where visual activity enhances trade
- Commercial shop floors with strong product availability, visibility, and presentation
- Consistent Varley visual and brand standards across both locations while recognising each store’s individual customer and trading needs
- Seamless execution of collection launches and campaigns
- Strong collaboration between FOH, BOH, management, central functions, and both store teams
- Confident, capable teams that independently maintain strong visual and commercial standards
- Product performance, customer feedback, and inventory insights inform visual and commercial decisions
Our Values
We are the sum of many parts
We promote diversity, inclusivity, and teamwork. Our successes and failures are shared as a team
We pursue quality in everything we do
Growth comes from continuous improvement across every aspect of our business
We embrace possibility and push boundaries
We encourage innovative thinking and challenge ourselves to achieve extraordinary outcomes
Data-driven decisions and purposeful actions
We prioritise thoughtful analysis and informed decision making
Our brand is timeless and valuable
We protect and enhance the long-term value of our brand
We never compromise our product
Our product is defined by quality, not price
We respect and exceed customer expectations
Our goal is to turn customers into passionate advocates
We choose partners who reflect our values
We collaborate with partners who uphold the same standards we do
We grow our brand by empowering others
We support the growth of those around us and build meaningful connections.
Responsibility is at the core of everything we do
We prioritise ethical practices and sustainability.
Kindness is our guiding principle
Respect, empathy, and understanding shape how we work together.
