Burberry Needs Saving, This Ultra-British Fashion Collection Could Be The Answer

Balancing unashamed Britishness and American optimism, the label put on a star-studded show that aimed to lure shoppers back.

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 lately by a series of downbeat 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 shares hitting a 15-year low. In November, the company is expected to report half-year losses.

It’s arguably one of the most dire situations facing any luxury fashion business in the world and is a daunting landing step for Joshua Schulman, who was recently appointed as chief executive officer after Jonathan Akeroyd was axed this year.

Schulman comes from midmarket leather goods label Coach, in itself a suggestion the label known for its trench coats might be on the brink of a big strategy change – Burberry’s “Knight” bag is currently sold for about £1890, pitting it against more desirable styles by the likes of Loewe and Saint Laurent. Coach’s, by contrast, are around £300.

And so in the most British of ways, Burberry’s chief creative officer, Bradford-born Daniel Lee marches on with his attempts to create hit pieces that will lure shoppers back.

On Tuesday, he presented his spring-summer 2025 collection, at London’s National Theatre, which had been transformed by Gary Hume, one of the Young British Artists, who re-imagined his “Bays” installation, first shown at the East Country Yard show at Docklands in 1990, by hanging giant turquoise tarpaulins with collage cut-outs around the space.

The collection was full of pieces designed to tick every British box, with references to the 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 go too literal with these nods to the culture he’s aiming to represent, perhaps that would be the easy path.

Yet so many other labels are going full-throttle Britannia right now – Miu Miu, where sales have soared 93%, released a Balmoral collection last week. Instead, as he described it backstage after the show, there was “a feeling of lightness and summertime” to dresses, shorts and jackets with all the gabardine practicality of a trench coat. “They’re things which don’t feel too precious, pieces you can wear day to night,” Lee said.

Coats were naturally the hero items and the range was impressive, from lightweight, effortless versions of the trench to shorter, belted versions plus oversized, weatherbeaten-looking parkas – ideal for next year’s Oasis concertgoers. Patsy Kensit, former wife of Liam Gallagher, was incidentally on the front row.

Lee has chosen to embrace the once-beleaguered Burberry check, too. It was boldly emblazoned on short trench coats for men and in a pale but no less forthright co-ord crop top and shorts set for women. There were subtle hints on offer as well such as belts and bag trims.

“I really like the check,” Lee said. “We’ve endeavoured to move it into new colours and textures. The check in its original figuration is particularly loud so it’s nice to explore more muted colorations for people who don’t want to scream Burberry immediately.”

There was a little more unashamed Britishness in the accessories, where a new saddle-style bag has been named the Cotswolds, presumably in the hope that every member of the monied elite in the area will snap one up.

Burberry flooded its front row with Great Brits of all varieties, from model David Gandy to the 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 (sporting a check kilt and bag which echoed the notorious Daniella Westbrook picture that dogged Burberry for so long).

Jerry Hall was there too, glamour personified in a bottle green trench with daughter Elizabeth Jagger in a checked mini.

Anna Wintour also sat on the front row, swapping the Kamala Harris scarf she’s been donning recently for a loud and proud Burberry check number, perhaps feeling it’s a cause just as much in need of her support as the Democrats. An activist from Peta stormed the catwalk in a dress reading “Animals Aren’t Fabric”, though, at this point, that’s probably the least of Burberry’s worries.

Rumours always abound in the fashion world about a change of creative director, particularly right now with so many big jobs vacant, but Lee placed himself at the centre of Burberry’s turnaround plans. “We’ve worked together for two months now,” he said of his flourishing partnership with Schulman. “I feel a sense of American optimism from him, I enjoy his drive and positivity.

“In its heyday, Burberry had the leadership of an American CEO and a British designer,” he added, referring to the 2000s/2010s era when Yorkshireman Christopher Bailey and Angela Ahrendts led Burberry out of its chav doldrums to global design and business acclaim.

“We want the fashion show to feel like a proper vision,” Lee said. “We need to find smart ways now to take the checks and the coats and evolve them into something that’s relevant in store.” Will this show be enough to power up the turnaround? Time will tell, but if any label is well-positioned to harness the current vogue for British style in all its glorious forms, it should be Burberry.

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