“Fashion is not a solo business, it’s a team sport,” said Joshua Schulman, chief executive officer of Burberry, citing a “high-performance culture grounded in creative and commercial alchemy” as a key goal for propelling the British luxury brand, and describing its current creative director Daniel Lee as a “great partner” in that effort.
Speaking at the WWD Apparel and Retail CEO Summit in New York City, Schulman said he long had eyes on Burberry when he was leading such diverse companies as Bergdorf Goodman, Jimmy Choo and Coach.
Earlier in his career, when he was overseeing women’s merchandising at Gucci, he collaborated with Christopher Bailey, the longtime chief creative officer of Burberry, who was then women’s design director of the Italian label under Tom Ford.
“Burberry had a tradition of creative and commercial alchemy and that goes back to Rose Marie Bravo [former Burberry CEO] when she hired Christopher,” Schulman related to Samantha Conti, WWD’s London bureau chief, during a fireside chat. “That became a real priority for me [when I became CEO] because the business was underperforming.
“One of the first meetings that I had at Burberry was with all of our design, product development and merchandising teams to bring them together to share the state of the business and what we needed to do together,” he said.
Fast forward two years to 2026, and Schulman continues to apply his Burberry Forward strategy, which juxtaposes 170 years of history with the unexpected.
“Burberry has always been at its best when it balances the heritage with innovation,” Schulman said. “One of the key things that we did was focus on this idea of timeless British luxury as part of our brand.
“Now that we have laid the foundations, we have this opportunity to add additional layers of innovation to surprise and delight,” he continued. “We will continue to always be timeless, but also disrupting expectations.”
A recent example was Burberry’s spring 2027 runway show during London Fashion Week last September, when Lee unveiled a collaboration with celebrated British textile designer Celia Birtwell.
“I love reading about fashion and retail, and one of my favorite books is the ‘Ossie Clark Diaries,’” he related, referring to the 1998 book gathering the British fashion designer’s personal journals and sketches and delving into his marriage with Birtwell from 1969 to 1974. “So when when Daniel suggested to me that he was reaching out to Celia, I was really enchanted. As that idea came to life, I think all of us got very excited about that. I didn’t actually meet Celia until the day she was at the runway show, and it was really just a wonderful honor for her to be there….I think that created a lot of joy and surprise.”
Burberry also recently collaborated with British brand Hunza G, cofounded by Georgiana Huddart, on a swimwear collection focused on its proprietary, ultra-stretch Original Krinkle fabric.
“That was a surprise. And yet it also relates so much to our DNA, because Georgiana stands for woven innovation with Hunza G,” Schulman said. “Thomas Burberry founded the company, and then he invented gabardine [for trenchcoats]. So there’s a connection.
“It’s no longer about just reminding people about Burberry’s heritage, but how to express that within today’s culture for today’s customer,” he explained.
Asked about plans for 2027, Schulman was shy on specifics but hinted that “it’s about amplifying the drumbeat that we have had, and it’s this idea of being timeless while disrupting expectations.”
Capping off its anniversary year, Burberry is gearing up for “Ever Forward” in Shanghai, billed as Burberry’s largest brand exhibition ever.
“It will be open for a month in a location near the Bund, and it will be celebrating 170 years of Burberry,” he said.
Schulman acknowledged the challenging market conditions. “But you know, many of the breakthroughs happen in tough times.…Burberry has endured and withstood for 170 years, and so we are optimistic and looking forward. We want to build on the success that we’re having with Burberry Forward.”
Launched in 2024, the Burberry Forward turnaround strategy was designed to reverse slumping sales and restore profitability by shifting from ultra-high-end fashion experiments and re-centering the brand on timeless British luxury embodied in trenchcoats and other outerwear styles, scarves and classic check patterns.
“We’re now bringing a new level of inspiration to all of our touchpoints and igniting our brand message around the world,” he said, citing the upcoming transformation of its Regent Street flagship in London, dubbed Burberry House, as a primary example.
“We have looked at how we can unlock the original luster of this Grade II-listed building, and really let the history of the building be a backdrop for all of our all of our brand initiatives,” he said.
Schulman decided to layer on another historical artifact, the “Burberrys” clock that sat above its Haymarket headquarters for decades, more recently reassigned to its Horseferry House offices.
“I thought, ‘Why are we doing this just for ourselves? We should have this some place for our customers,’” he related, revealing that Burberry recently received planning permission to install it for public view right above the main facade entrance of Regent Street.
Among other features that take the new store beyond a retail space into cultural realms are the 1856 Gallery, which will host rotating exhibitions from the brand archives; the Trench Arcade, an immersive experience around outerwear designed for all types of weather, and the first Burberry Coffee and Tea cafe “with a famed British chef,” Schulman teased.
“We’ll also have experiential, hospitality and archival elements throughout the store,” he said.
Burberry is currently the subject of an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert‘s Prince Consort Gallery that exalts the history of the trenchcoat, from its functional purpose during World War II to its recurrence on fashion runways.
An avid student of retail history, Schulman said he was particularly tickled by the old clothing labels incorporating global department store banners alongside the Burberry brand.
Next up in its multiyear partnership with the museum is a refurbishment of its iconic Fashion Gallery at the V&A, to be unveiled in the fall of 2028 as The Burberry Gallery.