Paul Dillinger is the Vice President of Global Product Innovation at LS&Co. Following his passion for sustainability, Dillinger has been an integral partner with the company’s Social and Environmental Sustainability group to develop front-end methods for applied sustainability in the design process.
Dillinger led the design team that created the Wellthread collection, a result of a fellowship with the Aspen Institute. He is the first fashion designer to earn a First Movers Fellowship with the renowned organization. He is also the driving force behind the new partnership between LS&Co. and Dillinger has also been leading Levi’s® latest venture with Google: Project Jacquard, which weaves Google Jacquard’s technology into the Levi’s® Brand’s iconic product.
Before joining LS&Co., Dillinger worked as a fashion designer and brand development specialist for 16 years at a variety of fashion houses in New York, including Calvin Klein and DKNY. He has held faculty appointments at California College of the Arts and Washington University in St. Louis, and has also served as a designer-in-residence at the Rhode Island School of Design through a program sponsored by Levi Strauss & Co.
Dillinger received his BFA in fashion design from Washington University in St. Louis. After graduation, he moved to Milan as the first Fulbright Scholar in field of fashion design, researching the influence of emerging luxury markets on high-fashion design direction and commercialization strategies. Concurrent with this research, he earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Domus Academy in 1995.
