In 2025, it's time for fashion to get back to brand
Wherever the British designer Daniel Lee ends up, we can probably all agree that is he is leaving Burberry at some point in the foreseeable future (the industry rumour mill has linked him to a role at Jil Sander). The British luxury brand, at which Lee is currently chief designer, has been battling headwinds, particularly in China, and is changing its business trajectory. While Lee isn’t to blame, the strategy, instigated by a previous CEO, of raising prices to uber luxury levels, didn’t have the desired effect. Things were made even worse by the downturn blowing across the entire fashion industry.
Burberry fell into the trap, that many luxury brands have fallen into, where the brand became too focussed on the creative director. The trend started many years ago when designers (think 'Tom Ford for Gucci’ and ‘Dior Homme by Hedi Slimane’) insisted on being name checked whenever the brand was mentioned. This trend, indulged by brands, put them in the back seat and it’s why we’ve found ourselves in this intense period of brands swapping one big-name designer for another.

Burberry's Daniel Lee
Brands need to remember who they are and that they were there long before most of the current crop of creative directors were born. The brand is the most important party in the relationship with the consumer. Burberry will of course appoint somebody to oversee creative but this appointment doesn’t need to be such a focus or something so personal. Most consumers of mass luxury brands don’t know or care who heads up the creative team. And a creative team can also take some of the heat and pressure off an individual.
Burberry’s new strategy of focussing on outerwear and scarves with more controlled pricing will switch it into a more timeless category instead of being obsessively trend-driven by catwalk product. The marketing has already changed for the better, injecting heritage and British personalities with a sense of humour and relatability.

Burberry's new campaign featuring Olivia Colman
Burberry will be looking at somebody like Coach’s commercial success and sales volumes (Burberry’s new CEO Joshua Schulman will know all about that since he was CEO and president of Coach from 2017-2020). While British designer Stuart Vevers has been creative director at Coach since 2013, the majority of its consumers would be hard pressed to namecheck him. Following Vevers’ arrival, the American brand set out to push its fashion credentials through catwalk shows and set about elevating the product, but after that initial push, it has maintained the momentum with well-priced and reliable product seen across the country. The pricing of a Coach bag is something most consumers will need to think about but it’s not necessarily a case of buy the bag and cancel the holiday.

Coach
Swiss luxury brand Bally appears to be charting a similar route. Sold to the American group Regent in August 2024, Bally has already closed its store on Bond Street, quietly turning it into its more affordable American brand, Club Monaco. Despite critical praise, there remains industry noise around its creative director, Simone Bellotti exiting the brand.
Bally has always struggled elevating the brand from a Swiss Russell & Bromley to a luxury contender to compete with the likes of Gucci and Prada. Alongside many of these luxury brands, the new owners seem to have decided it’s not worth the effort or expense especially in a struggling market.

Mulberry
Affordable luxury brands like Mulberry and Kate Spade don’t need fancy named creative directors to sell. They need good value product aimed at the correct demographics and in appropriate locations (something Mulberry CEO Andrea Baldo has acknowledged). Burberry won’t want to admit defeat, but when its new strategy was announced the share price ticked up, with shareholders understanding this is the route to growth and bigger profits.
Many luxury brands are finally realising that designer egos aren’t necessarily the best for all businesses. The excessive costs and work don’t often translate into sales and the commercial product is separate anyway.
Brands need to invest in themselves and not someone that can leave, or be asked to leave, when a contract is finished. It is timely for brands to go back to being bigger than the designer in 2025. The dearth of talent out there will only help support this transition.