Burberry's Christopher Bailey talks commerce and creativity for Woolmark

Burberry's chief executive and chief creative officer Christopher Bailey has revealed how he handles his approach to his joint role at the luxury house (which will change next year) and why he believes what Burberry does is design and not art in a wide-reaching interview with veteran fashion journalist and writer Colin McDowell. The interview was recorded exclusively for The Woolmark Company and the full version has just been released on its Merino.com website.

Bailey, a graduate of the Royal College of Art, reveals in the interview that he considers himself to be a designer as opposed to specifically fashion designer. "Yes, I've always related much more to design than fashion," he told McDowell. "But I guess we all specialise in something and I ended up specialising in fashion."

Throughout his career Bailey has worked with some of the industry's most inspiring designers and CEOs, which he said had shaped his career and gave him an insight into "how to do things properly". His design career began at Donna Karan before he worked under Tom Ford (then at Gucci).

When he moved to Burberry, it was to work for CEO Rose Marie Bravo, who was credited with kickstarting the turnaround of Burberry (not least by recruiting Bailey in 2001). Bravo left and was replaced by Angela Ahrendts in 2006; Ahrendts had previously worked with Bailey at Donna Karan in the 1990s.

"I've been in an incredibly privileged situation where I've had these real role models [...]. What you can get from these people in terms of the nourishment and nurturing has been immense for me," Bailey said.

After Ahrendts left Burberry in 2014 to join Apple, Bailey was appointed to the joint role of chief executive and chief creative officer in a move that did not please the City. Board governance guidelines aim to deter one person from holding two senior roles (and therefore too much power) and Bailey has recently given some ground by announcing that Marco Gobbetti of Celine will join the business as CEO next year, while Bailey takes the new role of president alongside his chief creative officer position.

While the specifics of that move were not discussed in the interview, Bailey did address the issue of holding two roles. "I've never really defined it as two jobs," he said. "There are two very different responsibilities but I don't class it as two jobs as they are so interlinked and intertwined."

Bailey revealed that he still makes time to ensure he can be involved in creative and practical design processes, such as cutting and fitting, particularly around catwalks. "When we are working on the shows I make sure that I involve myself in every aspect," he said.

Burberry, he said, was about making clothes that people want to wear. "When creativity and commerce come together, that's when it becomes magical. I absolutely see what we do as design and not art and I think that's a big distinction for me," he said. "Design is about people having both an emotional reaction to something but also a very functional, pragmatic approach to something."