Burberry, Unplugged

Fearless adapter Christopher Bailey has kept Britain’s most iconic label on the cusp with digital innovation and see-now, buy now speed. His latest obsession? Gorgeously old-school craftsmanship.

- Zoë Wolff

SINCE 2001, Christopher Bailey, the famously nice designer with the still-boyish looks and rolling Yorkshire accent, has rebooted Burberry as a brand known for firsts. As in, first to live stream shows and debut right-off-the-runway preordering (2009). First global luxury brand to feature “intweet” purchasing (2014). And, this past September, first luxury house to embrace the new see-now, buy-now show strategy. Bailey himself, now 45, was among the first designers to sniff out the necessity of moving and thinking like a digital native. So the shift in his design sensibility over the past two seasons, as he’s gone (beautifully) back to the hand to focus on slow, considered craftsmanship and provenance, seems like anything but creative caprice. When Bailey says, “It feels like the right moment for something that’s all about authenticity—in terms of work, craft, process, history, expressing something,” you know change is afoot.

Bailey’s creative shift is only one of the recent shake-ups at Burberry. After nearly three years in the unprecedented dual role of chief creative officer and CEO, running both the brand’s creative and business sides—a period that coincided with a slowdown in the Chinese retail boom that has taken a toll on almost every major luxury fashion label— Bailey has recently been joined at the helm by former Céline chairman and CEO Marco Gobbetti. The designer, who will continue to hold his dual title until Gobbetti takes over as CEO in early July (at which point Bailey will be renamed president and chief creative officer), recently told industry site The Business of Fashion, “I think the role of any leader is to take themselves out of the situation and to say what is right for the company going forward…to identify…where I add the most value and where my strengths are not and where we need to add those strengths.”