Burberry’s president checking out next year
‘Huge influence’ steps away from British brand
N EW YOR K • In yet another major shakeup of the fashion world, Christopher Bailey, the chief creative officer and president of Burberry and the man responsible for transforming it from a local heritage name to a global fashion powerhouse, is getting out of the trenches.
The company announced Tuesday that Bailey, 46, would step down from the board in March 2018, and leave Burberry entirely in December of next year after 17 years with the company.
The decision marks a major turning point for Burberry, Britain’s largest luxury brand by sales, which in March reported annual revenues of 2.8 billion pounds ( about $ 4.8 billion), as well as for the greater fashion industry.
Bailey will be the seventh major designer to leave a prominent fashion job since 2015, after the departure of Hedi Slimane from Saint Laurent, Alber Elbaz from Lanvin and Riccardo Tisci from Givenchy. Other big names who have played musical chairs in the luxury space include Raf Simons, who went from Dior to Calvin Klein, Maria Grazia Chiuri ( Valentino to Dior) and Clare Waight Keller (Chloé to Givenchy).
It has created a sense of churn extraordinar y f or modern fashion, one that has left the industry reeling.
Bailey’s decision to step away from Burberry, a brand with which he was almost synonymous, underscores a new belief in the fashion world that it is no longer expected, or even desirable, for a designer to remain at a house for a long period of time.
“We believe this is a necessary move to make Burberry exciting again,” Luca Solca, head of luxury goods at Exane BNP Paribas, wrote in an analyst note. “Most brands that have gone through a revival had to first find new creative resources.”
Bailey joined Burberry as design director in 2001, when t he company was struggling to create a fashion identity under Roberto Menichetti.
Appointed creative director in 2004 and chief creative officer in 2009, Bailey positioned Burberry as a conduit of Britishness to the world, working with actors, musicians and artists to amplify his fashion message into one of cultural leadership.
Like Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, Bailey’s skill lay in taking the major ingredients of a heritage brand — in Burberry’s case, the checks, the trench coat and its roots in the British countryside — and continually moving them toward the abstract and into a cooler, more contemporary esthetic.
“He has been a huge influence on everything in fashion over the last couple of years,” said Jonathan Saunders, the Scottish designer who is now creative director of Diane von Furstenberg. “At one moment almost all young British independent designers went to him for advice about their business and career.”
Recently, however, Burberry’s star had begun to dim.
Bailey’s arrival in the boardroom coincided with an industry- wide slump in global luxury sales, which was prompted by a crackdown on gift- giving and a slowdown in economic growth in China, geopolitical instability and volatile foreign exchange rates. Burberry sales soon flagged across key markets, particularly in China.
The Burberry share price slumped, and investors grew increasingly anxious about whether Bailey could successfully juggle the roles of both creative and commercial leader in a more uncertain trading environment. Many also attacked his hefty pay package. In 2015, he took a 75 per cent pay cut, although his salary rose from 1.9 million pounds ($3.2 million) to 3.5 million pounds ($6 million) last year, and he received 10.5 million pounds ($ 18 million) in shares this summer.
Esthetic inspiration seemed to have been traded for strategic change: Under Bailey, Burberry was among the first brands to merge multiple lines at different price points into a single offering, combine the men’s and women’s shows into one, and move to a see- now- buynow system in which clothes became available as soon as they were shown.
Burberry has made no announcement about a possible successor to Bailey, and would not commit to a timeline.
One name already being mentioned is that of the Céline designer Phoebe Philo.
The one thing that is certain is that the decision will be watched very closely — as will Bailey’s next move.