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Burberry to Test Revival on London Fashion Week Runway

A London bus drives past the Burberry flagship store in Regent Street, in London, Britain, September 8, 2025. REUTERS/Toby Melville
A London bus drives past the Burberry flagship store in Regent Street, in London, Britain, September 8, 2025. REUTERS/Toby Melville
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Burberry to Test Revival on London Fashion Week Runway

A London bus drives past the Burberry flagship store in Regent Street, in London, Britain, September 8, 2025. REUTERS/Toby Melville
A London bus drives past the Burberry flagship store in Regent Street, in London, Britain, September 8, 2025. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Burberry's turnaround drive, which has tapped Oscar winner Olivia Colman and Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher to champion its British heritage and classic trench coats, faces a fresh test on Monday when it unveils its latest designs at London Fashion Week.

CEO Joshua Schulman, an American, has overhauled Burberry's marketing to try to broadcast a version of Britishness that shoppers around the world can relate to, having criticized his predecessor's product and pricing decisions, saying some designs had a "niche aesthetic" and were not recognizable as Burberry.

"It felt very high fashion and quite edgy, and the collections that you're seeing now are very classic, very clear heritage designs," said Anna Farmbrough, portfolio manager at Ninety One, which holds Burberry shares.

FIRST LADY ARRIVES IN BRITAIN WEARING BURBERRY
Creative director Daniel Lee's role has changed since Schulman took over in July last year, with the CEO linking design more closely to commercial teams, and speculation has swirled over how long Lee, appointed in September 2022, will remain in the role.

"Josh has normalized the relationship between a chief executive and a creative director," said Jeremy Smith, UK equities portfolio manager at Columbia Threadneedle in London.

"It's obviously important to Burberry who their creative director is, but it shouldn't define the business,” Reuters quoted him as saying.

Burberry under Schulman has rolled out social media campaigns featuring celebrities strongly associated with Britishness, like Colman, who starred as Queen Elizabeth II in Netflix series The Crown, and riffing off cultural moments like the Glastonbury music festival.

The brand has also made its way to the biggest political stage - when Air Force One touched down in London on Tuesday night for US President Donald Trump's state visit to the UK, Melania Trump exited the plane wearing a Burberry trench coat.

"Burberry's use of social media has been very, very clever and it's very powerful because it can change perceptions quite quickly and achieve quite broad penetration, whereas product positioning in the luxury world takes a long time to change the way people think," Smith said.

SALES EXPECTED TO RETURN TO GROWTH
Burberry's shares have gained 50% since Schulman took over as investors welcomed changes including a 20% cut to the workforce, but the real test of the turnaround comes in the autumn and winter months during which the brand makes most of its revenue.

While Burberry's like-for-like sales growth has been negative for the last seven quarters, the latest result was down just 1% year-on-year, and analysts expect sales to return to growth this quarter as the turnaround starts to bear fruit.

"You would hope that they would be able to get back to where they were historically, in terms of sales - and I think they have a very good chance, under Josh, of growing beyond that," said Ninety One's Farmbrough.

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Fashion

A Nonprofit in France Is Fighting Fast-Fashion Waste, One Sneaker at a Time

Mohamed Boukhatem, co-founder and director of SneakCoeurZ, a nonprofit organization giving used footwear a second life, poses in Champs-sur-Marne, east of Paris, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP)
Mohamed Boukhatem, co-founder and director of SneakCoeurZ, a nonprofit organization giving used footwear a second life, poses in Champs-sur-Marne, east of Paris, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP)
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A Nonprofit in France Is Fighting Fast-Fashion Waste, One Sneaker at a Time

Mohamed Boukhatem, co-founder and director of SneakCoeurZ, a nonprofit organization giving used footwear a second life, poses in Champs-sur-Marne, east of Paris, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP)
Mohamed Boukhatem, co-founder and director of SneakCoeurZ, a nonprofit organization giving used footwear a second life, poses in Champs-sur-Marne, east of Paris, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP)

Hundreds of used sneakers arrive each week at a workshop east of Paris, where workers inspect them and ask a simple question: Can a shoe be saved?

The nonprofit SneakCœurZ is in the business of sorting the shoes to check which ones can be resold or redistributed, and which have to be rejected. It says it collected 30,000 pairs of used sneakers last year and resold 2,000 pairs, and wants to scale up that process.

“Today, there is no project of this scale in the sneaker sector,” said Mohamed Boukhatem, the organization's director general and co-founder. “We are the only ones able to industrialize both the processes and the collection of sneakers for reuse.”

The group's work underscores a growing waste problem in France, where the capital Paris is long one of the world’s fashion and luxury hubs.

The stakes are huge: the textile industry is among the world’s most polluting, and the fashion and textiles sector accounts for up to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations. The European Parliament has said textiles were the third-largest source of water degradation and land use in the European Union in 2020.

Refashion, the French government-approved eco-organization for clothing, household linen and footwear, says 259 million pairs of shoes were sold in France in 2024.

It says only about a third of used textiles and footwear are separately collected, with much of the rest left in cupboards or thrown away with household waste.

At its workshop in Champs-sur-Marne, workers for SneakCœurZ inspect the used shoes and check which can be salvaged.

“The structural elements of the shoe are what determine whether we can refurbish it or not,” workshop manager Paul Defawes Abadie said.

“A damaged Velcro strap isn’t a deal breaker. A lace isn’t a deal breaker. Dirt is never a deal breaker,” he said. “What really matters is the wear of the structural materials, especially the outsole.”

Pairs that make the cut are cleaned from the sole upward, disinfected inside and, in some cases, whitened under UV light before being put back into circulation.

The nonprofit says it redistributed more than 7,000 pairs to people in need and helped create 19 jobs.

“Over the next three years, the goal is to triple or even quadruple these volumes and move to an industrial scale,” Boukhatem said.

France has tried to respond to the issue of fast-fashion waste with law, as well as rhetoric.

Its 2020 anti-waste law requires unsold nonfood goods to be reused, donated or recycled instead of destroyed.

Authorities introduced a state-backed repair bonus for clothing and shoes in November 2023. Separately, lawmakers are still working on a bill aimed at reducing the textile industry’s environmental impact.

The bill passed the National Assembly in March 2024 and the Senate in June 2025, and the government said in February that it was still aiming for a joint parliamentary committee this spring.

Fashion

H&M's Q1 Profit Grows More Than Expected, Sees March Sales Up 1%

FILE PHOTO: A Swedish flag hangs outside a business on a street of the old city of Stockholm, Sweden, February 24, 2024. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Swedish flag hangs outside a business on a street of the old city of Stockholm, Sweden, February 24, 2024. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo
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H&M's Q1 Profit Grows More Than Expected, Sees March Sales Up 1%

FILE PHOTO: A Swedish flag hangs outside a business on a street of the old city of Stockholm, Sweden, February 24, 2024. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Swedish flag hangs outside a business on a street of the old city of Stockholm, Sweden, February 24, 2024. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo

Swedish fashion retailer H&M reported on Thursday a slightly bigger rise than expected in December-February operating profit, and predicted March sales would be up 1% in local currencies.

"Towards the end of the quarter our well-received spring collections contributed to a positive sales trend, which also continued into March," CEO Daniel Erver said in a statement.

Operating profit in H&M's fiscal first quarter, ⁠which includes the key ⁠Christmas shopping period, rose for a third consecutive quarter to 1.51 billion crowns ($162 million) from a year-earlier 1.20 billion and a mean forecast in an LSEG poll of analysts of 1.39 billion, on an organic sales decrease of 1%.

The rival ⁠to Inditex in January flagged that local-currency sales in the first two months of the quarter were down 2%.

According to Reuters, H&M said it is closely monitoring developments in the Middle East and the implications for global trade.

"With good flexibility in the supply chain and a low proportion of air freight, there are opportunities to adapt the flow of goods to changed conditions," it said. "Middle Eastern markets account for a ⁠small portion ⁠of the company’s total sales and the markets are operated through franchise partners."

On February 28, the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes against Iran. Iran has in response launched strikes against Israel, US bases and Gulf states.

It has attacked vessels and infrastructure throughout the Gulf region and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, hitting global supply chains and causing soaring energy costs, raising concern over war-driven inflation and potential impact on consumer demand.

Fashion

Next Says UK Sales Have Held Up Since Iran War Started

Women tour a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, China, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Women tour a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, China, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
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Next Says UK Sales Have Held Up Since Iran War Started

Women tour a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, China, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Women tour a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, China, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

British clothing retailer Next has not seen a noticeable drop off in UK sales since the US-Israeli war on Iran started at the end of February, its boss said on Thursday.

"Eight weeks, ⁠including the war ⁠weeks, have been good in the UK," CEO Simon Wolfson told Reuters after Next published full-year ⁠results.

He said sales in the Middle East, which account for about 6% of the group's annual turnover, fell "dramatically" in the first few days of the war and demand remains "suppressed.”

Wolfson said if ⁠Next ⁠did have to raise prices around June or July to make up for higher costs caused by the war, the increases would only be 1% to 2%.