Burberry's Joshua Schulman Says Heritage and Innovation Must Work Together
Joshua Schulman, chief executive of Burberry, the British luxury fashion house, says the brand is at its best when it balances its heritage with new ideas. He made the point in a fireside chat, an informal on-stage conversation, at the WWD Apparel and Retail CEO Summit in New York. WWD reported his remarks on 5 November 2026.
The conversation was led by Samantha Conti, the London bureau chief of WWD, the US fashion trade publication. Schulman said he wants Burberry to build what he called a high-performance culture, grounded in "creative and commercial alchemy". In plain terms, he wants the people who design the clothes and the people who sell them to work as one team.
Schulman also described Daniel Lee, Burberry's creative director, the person who sets the design direction for the collections, as a great partner.
Schulman joined Burberry on 17 July 2024. The company announced his appointment two days earlier, on 15 July 2024, and said he was 52 years old at the time. Before Burberry, he led Bergdorf Goodman, the New York department store, and the fashion labels Jimmy Choo and Coach. Burberry said at the time that he had a record of driving transformative growth across global luxury, fashion and retail businesses.
Burberry's Annual Report 2024/25 describes the brand as "Quintessentially British, equal parts heritage and innovation." The same report says the brand's heritage is deeply connected to the outdoors. Burberry is best known for its trench coat and its check pattern, and the company's own report links its image to that long history.
The recent collections show that mix in practice. Burberry's spring 2027 runway show, held during London Fashion Week, included a collaboration with the textile designer Celia Birtwell. A runway show is a live presentation of new clothes on a catwalk. Burberry also worked with the swimwear label Hunza G on a swimwear collection built around a crinkled material called Original Krinkle.
Schulman's remarks came in a single interview, and the summit is one of several public appearances in which he has described the company's direction. WWD has also profiled him in connection with the Walpole Luxury Summit 2026, where the publication described a "Timeless Britishness" approach as a central part of Burberry's turnaround.
For a company that sells coats, scarves, bags and perfume to shoppers across many countries, the question Schulman is answering is simple to state. How do you keep an old name feeling new without losing what made it recognisable? His answer, given in New York this week, is that the two must be run together rather than one after the other.
