The Burberry C-suite can’t be the most optimistic place to be right now. The fashion house, once considered the “ne plus ultra” in British luxury, has been dogged by a series of gloomy news stories about its decline. In the past few weeks alone, it has fallen out of the FTSE 100 for the first time since 2009, with the shares hitting a 15-year low. The company is expected to report half-year losses in November.
It’s probably one of the most dire situations a luxury fashion company in the world has faced. It’s a daunting move for Joshua Schulman, who was recently appointed CEO after Jonathan Akeroyd was fired earlier this summer.
Schulman joins from mid-market leather goods brand Coach, which in itself suggests that the trench coat brand is about to make a major shift in strategy – Burberry’s “Knight” bag currently retails for around £1,890, putting it up against more desirable styles from the likes of Loewe and Saint Laurent. Coach’s, on the other hand, retails for around £300.
And so, in the most British way possible, Burberry’s chief creative officer, Bradford-born Daniel Lee, continues his quest to create hit pieces that will lure shoppers back. On Monday, he presented his spring/summer 2025 collection at the National Theatre, which had been transformed by YBA member Gary Hume, who reimagined his “Bays” installation, first shown at the East Country Yard show in Docklands in 1990, by hanging giant turquoise sails with collage cut-outs around the space.
The collection was packed with pieces designed to tick all the right boxes, with references to trench coats made from the gabardine fabric invented by Thomas Burberry in 1879, the weather, equestrian style, Savile Row and country pursuits. Lee is always careful not to be too literal with these nods to the culture he wants to represent; perhaps that would be the easy way out. Yet so many other brands are now going full Britannia – Miu Miu, which has seen sales rise 93 percent, released a Balmoral collection last week. Instead, as he described it backstage after the show, there was “a sense of lightness and summer” to the dresses, shorts and coats, with all the practical gabardine of a trench. “They’re things that don’t feel too precious, pieces that you can wear from day to night,” Lee explained.
Coats were of course the hero items and the range was impressive, from lightweight, effortless versions of the trench to cropped, belted versions plus oversized, distressed parkas – ideal for next summer’s Oasis concertgoers. Patsy Kensit, Liam Gallagher’s former wife, happened to be sitting front row.
Lee also chose to embrace the once-beleaguered Burberry check, which was boldly depicted on short trench coats for men and in a pale but no less bold co-ord crop top and shorts set for women. Subtle hints were also offered, such as belts and bag embellishments. “I really like the check,” Lee stressed. “We’ve tried to work it in new colours and textures. The check in its original form is very loud, so it’s nice to explore more muted colours for people who don’t want to scream Burberry,” he added.
There was a little more unashamed Britishness in the accessories, where a new saddlebag has been named The Cotswolds , presumably in the hope that every member of the area’s wealthy elite will get their hands on one. Burberry flooded the front row with Britain of all stripes, from model David Gandy to young royal Lady Amelia Windsor, aristocratic socialite Emma Weymouth, the Marchioness of Bath, Poppy Delevingne, Olympians Keely Hodgkinson and Katarina Johnson-Thompson, and TV presenter Miquita Oliver (in a checked kilt and bag that echoed the infamous Daniella Westbrook photo that has haunted Burberry for so long). Jerry Hall was there too, glamour personified in a bottle green trench coat, with daughter Elizabeth Jagger in a checked miniskirt.
Anna Wintour was also front row, trading in the Kamala Harris scarf she’d been wearing lately for a loud and proud Burberry check number, perhaps sensing that it was a cause that needed her support just as much as the Democrats. A PETA activist stormed the runway in a dress that read “Animals Aren’t Fabric,” though that’s probably the least of Burberry’s worries right now.
There are always rumors in the fashion world about a creative director change, especially with so many big jobs, but Lee has placed himself at the center of Burberry’s turnaround plans. “We’ve been working together for two months now,” he said of his blossoming partnership with Schulman. “I sense a sense of American optimism with him, I enjoy his drive and positivity.
“In its heyday, Burberry was led by an American CEO and a British designer,” he added, referring to the 2000s/2010s period when Yorkshireman Christopher Bailey and Angela Ahrendts led Burberry out of the chav rut to global recognition in design and business.
“We want the show to feel like a real vision,” Lee continued. “We now need to find clever ways to transform the checks and the coats into something that’s relevant in the store.” Will this show be enough to turn things around? Only time will tell, but if there’s one brand that’s well-positioned to harness the current wave of British style in all its glorious forms, it’s Burberry.
More pictures from that day…
