When Rose Marie Bravo
took over Burberry, the once-legendary British brand had slumped
into mediocrity. Year after year it turned out the same lines, staggering
along, living on a reputation earned decades before.
Thomas Burberry built a world-famous company by starting from
the simple observation that shepherds and farmers wore linen smocks
that kept them cool in summer and warm in winter. In 1879 he developed
a waterproof version of the smock. He called his cotton cloth
Gabardine.
By 1891 he was in London, making clothes and other items out
of Gabardine. Many celebrities of his day loved his clothes and
wore them.
Arctic explorer Roald Amundsen wore Burberry overalls. He left
a Burberry tent at the South Pole to prove to any explorers who
came later that he had been there first.
During World War I, Burberry designed a raincoat that was standard
issue for British Army officers. They christened it, "the trench
coat." The Burberry check was patented in 1924 and put in the
lining of all trench coats, including the one Humphrey Bogart
wore in Casablanca.
But those days of being a fashion leader and receiving celebrity
endorsement were long gone by 1997, when Burberry hired Rose Marie
Bravo away from her million-dollar job at Saks. At the time she
was a rising star of fashion retail.
She was born in the Bronx, the daughter of a hairdresser. She
graduated from the elite Bronx High School of Science and Fordham
University. Then she worked for Abraham and Strauss and Macy's.
Bravo has said that she was lucky to come up in cosmetics because
there were several successful women to use as role models. They
included Estee Lauder, Helena Rubenstein, Elizabeth Arden, and
Carol Phillips.
She learned from them all, but her biggest break came from Edward
Finkelstein. He was chairman of Macy's when he gave the then 37-year-old
Bravo the opportunity to run I. Magnin.
From I. Magnin she moved on to Saks. In the five years she was
there she brought new energy and fashion to the selling floor
there while improving operating results. That's why Burberry wanted
her.
Maybe it's more accurate to say they needed her, or someone like
her. When Bravo arrived at Burberry's shabby East End headquarters,
she found a lot that needed fixing. In fact the only thing Burberry
really had going for it were its name and famous check.
She set to work cleaning up the operational mess. She improved
logistics and distribution. Financial controls were put in place.
Licensing agreements were re-worked.
And she started looking and asking around for good ideas. She
noticed, for example, that the sales in Spain were very good.
This was puzzling because, in spite of the famous rhyme, it really
doesn't rain much in Spain. Bravo figured that the things she
learned in Spain could be used to sell raincoats in places like
Florida and Southern California.
She worked at reaching out to new markets while maintaining the
old ones. When model Kate Moss posed in a Burberry check bikini,
Bravo says the average Burberry customer's age dropped by thirty
years.
She still needed one thing, though. To succeed in any kind of
fashion business, you need a great designer. That can be a problem,
because name designers don't come cheap, if they come at all.
But what if you could find a great designer that wasn't in a
rush to get his name on everything? Then you might be describing
Christopher Bailey
If you're outside the fashion world and don't recognize Bailey's
name, don't panic. You're not alone. He's described as modest,
and a team player, and unassuming. He is probably all of those
things, but he is also a very, very good designer.
Bravo hired him away from Gucci in 2001. Since then Bailey has
shown a knack for using the Burberry check and historic designs
in all kinds of interesting ways. And there are always some recognizably
British design elements in his creations.
Bailey works with a team of designers and he seems quite comfortable
with Bravo's ideas of teamwork and seeking out good ideas wherever
they are to be found. Those ideas are part of the recipe for change
at Burberry that has produced some extraordinary results.
Sales have doubled from $470 million when Bravo took over at
Burberry to well over a billion. Revenue has risen for five straight
years. Profit last year increased by 75 percent.
What makes it all work is really very simple. Start with great
people and teamwork. Look for good ideas everywhere. Pay attention
to the business basics. Build on the strengths of the brand and
the people. And keep moving.
Top of page
You'll find
Burberry on the Web, but the company really hasn't been there long
and is still developing its Web presence. This is the
US version of the site.
You may want to compare
the US site with the UK version.
The retail and services group, GUS, is the corporate parent of
Burberry and there is short history of the firm on the
GUS site.
The history
of fashion is an educational site for fashion history, costume
history, and biograpies of fashion designers.
The site fashion-era.com
has a section on Burberry.
16 November 2004
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