Her Story
About Daniela
Daniela Cervera serves as Director of Product Development at Chico's in Fort Myers, Florida. She has spent 15 years with the company, advancing through roles that leverage her dual expertise in design and product development. Cervera began her professional journey in advertising on the creative side before transitioning to fashion around 2000-2001 as a stylist. She earned a business degree with a marketing management major and art minor from the State University of New York at Albany, followed by a design degree from FIT in 2003. Her early fashion experience included an internship at Diane von Furstenberg that led to her promotion to Director of Product Development there. At Chico's, she started in product development, contributed to design efforts, and took on leadership responsibilities including running the outlet department team before returning to the main line as a design director and ultimately Director of Product Development. She focuses on streamlining the product development calendar, fostering cross-functional relationships, and maintaining design integrity from concept to store.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Daniela
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the work ethic my parents instilled in me. Both my mom and dad came here when they were young and built a life for themselves. My dad owned restaurants and was an entrepreneur, and my mom was a pattern maker who went to FIT. I watched them and learned work ethic, integrity, and building trust from them. I've also been lucky to have leaders who helped me see the bigger picture, strategize, and think forward, which has been a huge part of my growth.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received was to be flexible and curious. Things in the fashion industry are always changing, so you have to be flexible, go with the flow, be patient, and be curious. That will help you keep moving forward.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would tell young women to stop waiting for things to happen for them. They need to carve their future out and carve their path. Never sit still, always keep wanting more and being curious. Start doing the level ahead of you's job while you're in that position to prove you can do it. Just keep doing more, be curious, and carve your path.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges is speed to market and making the calendar shorter. It takes so long from start to finish, so I'm trying to shorten the product development cycle calendar. There are things you can't control like fabric dyeing time and logistics, but you can challenge internal teams to make decisions quicker and get leadership alignment faster. When reacting to business, there's even less time, so the challenge is shortening the calendar to get product faster.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Trust is a big one for me. It's hard if you don't trust the people you work with. Building relationships and having trust is important. When someone breaks your trust, that's hard, and it affects how you continue to work with them.
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