Christopher Bailey will leave Burberry in 2018
31/10/2017
Marco Gobbetti joined Burberry at the start of 2017 and took over as chief executive in July. Until then, Christopher Bailey had the roles of chief executive and chief creative officer of the company; he made the move in 2014 after his immediate predecessor, Angela Ahrendts left to join tech company Apple. Before that, Christopher Bailey had been able to concentrate on being Burberry’s chief creative officer, the role he resumed when Marco Gobbetti arrived.
Earlier in his career, Mr Bailey was designer of womenswear at Donna Karan from 1994 until 1996, when he went to Milan to take up the post of senior womenswear designer at Gucci. He joined Burberry in 2001, working first as design director, becoming creative director in 2004 and chief creative officer at the end of 2009.
On announcing his decision to leave, Mr Bailey said: “It has been the great privilege of my working life to be at Burberry, working alongside and learning from such an extraordinary group of people over the last 17 years. Burberry encapsulates so much of what is great about Britain. As an organisation, it is creative, innovative and outward looking. It celebrates diversity and challenges received wisdom. It is over 160 years old, but it has a young spirit. It is part of the establishment, but it is always changing, and always learning.”
He said he would pursue new creative projects but would always remain “fully committed to the future success of this magnificent brand”.
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