Burberry boosts creative team with bags and shoes appointment from Dior

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Mar 20, 2017

As Burberry’s Christopher Bailey prepares to step aside from his CEO’s role to focus on his chief creative officer brief, the man who shook up the label in recent years is also boosting his wider creative team.

Burberry confirmed to Fashion Network today that Sabrina Bonesi has joined as design director for the all-important leathergoods and shoes categories.

Joining from Christian Dior, and having previously worked for Prada, Bottega Veneta, Marni, Salvatore Ferragamo and Tod’s, she reports directly to Bailey.

Burberry lagged some of the giants of European luxury goods as far as bags and footwear were concerned some years ago but it has caught up fast and has scored some notable successes with recent models from the casual Runway Rucksack to the Buckle and Bridle bags. It has grown strongly enough in this area to be an acquisition target for high-end bags giant Coach, which recently made an unsuccessful approach to buy the firm.

With Bonesi’s accessories track record, her new role that sees her responsible for the design of all women’s and men’s bags, accessories and shoes, shows that the company is clearly heavily focused on the category.

But the footwear part of her job will be crucial too. A number of luxury brands, including Gucci and Prada, have reported stronger growth in shoes in recent periods than in handbags and Burberry wants a larger piece of that pie as well.