Karen Martin

Karen has 25 years of experience designing and developing men’s and women’s sportswear and accessories for companies such as Polo/Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger. Most recently, Karen was the Creative Director for Sam Edelman Apparel. Under her leadership, she created a full design and product development team that launched what was heralded as the most successful launch at retail for a young Contemporary Brand.

Prior, under C2Group, Karen led all Creative initiatives for Marimekko in the North American markets. Establishing Creative direction for product partnerships, retail stores, and wholesale shop-in-shops. Previously, Karen was responsible for reinvigorating the women’s wholesale sportswear division of Tommy Hilfiger in her role as Senior Vice President, Women’s Design. She was also instrumental in building the women’s licensing division into a $500 million retail business as Senior Vice President, Licensing Design. In that capacity, Karen directed all phases of design and product development in order to ensure that each licensed product was faithful to the master brand.

With a keen understanding of how thoughtful design has a positive impact on profitability, Karen uses her considerable skills to define, create and execute successful strategies across a broad spectrum of product categories such as men’s and women’s apparel, including intimate apparel and swimwear; accessories, such as luggage, handbags, eyewear and watches; footwear and home. Since joining C2Group as Creative Director, Karen has produced winning design concepts for clients including Airstream, Lauren Hutton, India Hicks and Idyllwind.