Riccardo Tisci is exiting Burberry after five years as chief creative officer, the British company announced today. His last show for the brand took place on Monday, having been rescheduled from London Fashion Week due to the Queen’s funeral. Daniel Lee, the former creative director of Bottega Veneta, will take Tisci’s spot at the British heritage house joining on October 3.
“I am delighted that Daniel is joining Burberry as our new Chief Creative Officer. Daniel is an exceptional talent with a unique understanding of today’s luxury consumer and a strong record of commercial success, and his appointment reinforces the ambitions we have for Burberry,” Akeroyd said in a release. “I am excited about working closely with him and I am confident he will have the impact we are aiming for in this next phase, supported by our talented and experienced teams.”
Tisci’s appointment at Burberry reunited him with then-CEO Marco Gobbetti, who held the same role at Givenchy during the designer’s tenure there. Under his leadership, Tisci gave Burberry a more international gloss, and re-engaged millennial and Gen Z fans. But Gobbetti left Burberry in June of last year. (He is now at Ferragamo.) Akeroyd, formerly of Versace, was named Burberry’s new CEO last October and began working in the role in April of this year.
Interrupted by the Covid crisis, Tisci’s Burberry failed to reach lift-off the way the LVMH-owned Givenchy did when he helmed that brand. The timing was hard, but Tisci was also playing against type. His predecessor Christopher Bailey embraced and extrapolated on Burberry’s storied heritage; each collection was a sort of love letter to Britain. Being Italian-born, even though he is Central Saint Martins-trained, Tisci came at the label as more of an outsider. His run at the brand has also intersected with Brexit, which perhaps complicated the job of selling Burberry’s Britishness to the world.
Nonetheless, he has had his triumphs at Burberry. Straight away, he hooked up with the design legend Peter Saville (of New Order album fame) and reimagined the house logo, adding a T for Thomas to the famous Burberry B. The company’s use of fur ended on his watch, as did the controversial and environmentally harmful policy of burning unsold merchandise. And the Adam Driver-fronted campaign for Hero, Tisci’s first Burberry men’s fragrance, was an unmissable viral phenomenon.
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