Working on the design team at Johnny Was, was one of the worst career experiences I’ve had yet. Extremely toxic work environment. Design Director and Creative director on Johnny Was brand team are extremely unprofessional, cruel, and ignorant. Both designers and graphic designers (preform same function at JW) are expected to do everything from requesting patterns all the way through to communication with sample development team in China. This sounds cool, but it is managements way to pass the buck and blame you for anything that goes wrong along the way. It is a culture of blame, shame, and chaos. If you are reading this you may have seen that they have a job opening, well they do almost constantly. On average there was 1 person turnover every month just on the 7-9 person Johnny Was/Biya brand team. There is a reason for this, this place is a nightmare.
If you do accept the job, keep looking for others, because you will soon want to leave too. Trust me it was my dream job and I was devastated to find all of this out.
Not really surprised to hear. Interviewed there a few years ago and it was requested that I test 3 days. I was told to record my hours so I could be compensated, but was totally and completely ghosted after those 3 days. I didn’t love the environment, the proposed low ball pay or the way they seemed to operate based on those few days so wasn’t really heart broken when I didn’t get the job.
Was told upfront how low the pay was and the interviewer laughed as they told me they had to be upfront because some “crazy people” think they should be making more. The whole experience left me with an ick.
I also worked at Johnny Was and can confirm all the original posters points.
The clothes are beautiful and we got to work with nice fabrics with almost no budget. But I was so stressed out working there.
I eventually left and got an offer for almost $15,000 higher than I was earning at Johnny Was. Their wages were super low for the amount of work they demanded from their workers. I also watched them treat the pattern makers, cutters, and sample sewers terribly.