<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI feel like it\u2019s like \u2018Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,\u2019\u201d said Christopher Bailey of the Burleigh Pottery plant in Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn June, Bailey, the former designer and chief executive officer of Burberry, revealed he had teamed with a small group of investors to buy Burleigh Pottery, the British ceramics house founded in 1851 and known for its highly detailed and handmade designs and collaborations with brands including Ralph Lauren, Soho House and Daylesford.<\/p>\n
\n\tDuring an on-stage conversation with WWD\u2019s London bureau chief Samantha Conti at WWD\u2019s 2026 Apparel and Retail CEO Summit, Bailey said the decision to invest in Burleigh was \u201ccompletely intuitive, instinctive and kind of non-pragmatic.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter exiting Burberry at the end of 2018 following a 17-year tenure with the luxury brand, and taking some time off to follow his \u201cultimate dream to just be a dad,\u201d a \u201cquite persistent\u201d investor friend suggested he acquire Denby Pottery, which previously owned Burleigh and went into administration in March. While admitting his \u201clove of pottery,\u201d Bailey declined that opportunity but revealed his interest in Burleigh.<\/p>\n
\n\tHe had to act fast. \u201cI drove up to Staffordshire, where Burleigh is based, and I literally fell in love. It was one of those things where there was no kind of opportunity to be too rational or to think too deeply about it, because I had to make a decision then.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tFour hours later, the deal was done. Bailey was drawn by \u201cits authenticity,\u201d and Burleigh \u201cwas almost stuck in aspic, this beautiful thing, 175 years old, but it just hadn\u2019t really evolved. It had preserved all the skills that its founding partners had created, and so it was literally something from the heart,\u201d Bailey enthused.<\/p>\n
\n\tOn stage, he described the special techniques employed to create the pieces, each unique. \u201cA very intricate pattern is hand-drawn onto paper, then that pattern is transferred, engraved onto a copper cylinder that is put onto this machine, heated up slightly, and tissue, literally tissue paper, goes through with a particular ink.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tThe tissue paper is then cut out and placed by hand on every product, \u201cwhich is very difficult because it\u2019s a three-dimensional object that you\u2019re trying to wrap with this piece of tissue paper. So the skill is off the charts and it takes a very, very long time to learn how how to do it,\u201d Bailey explained, adding that the latest cylinder took two years to be made. \u201cWe\u2019re evolving that, but yes, two years,\u201d he said smiling.<\/p>\n
\n\tBailey mused that he found this all \u201creally seductive in a world where everything is very fast and there\u2019s very little intuition, and [Burleigh] is all about intuition. It\u2019s all about how you put it on once and if it\u2019s wrong, the pot has to be thrown away.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tThe pottery is created on \u201chuman instinct, and it just resonated because I love technology and [how it] allows us to kind of move fast and perform a lot of functions that we just couldn\u2019t do by ourselves, and all the different opportunities that it offers. But it\u2019s funny, the thing that kind of made my heart sing was this AI-proof kind of technique.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBailey likened this to his experience in fashion. \u201cIt is couture because there are no two pieces ever the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAsked about his ambitions for Burleigh, Bailey admitted he is still \u201clearning and trying to understand. I want to be incredibly respectful of something that I don\u2019t know anything about,\u201d but \u201cthe fundamental role\u201d is to preserve the uniqueness of the company, \u201cto make sure that this technique, this way of making, this skill is protected.\u201d To this end, he said he \u201cwould love to start a Burleigh guild, to bring young people into that skill,\u201d yet at the same time \u201cbuild a really strong operational kind of machine that is automated. We\u2019re running the business on something that is efficient, but the product is slow.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAccording to Bailey, Burleigh \u201chas never seen itself as a brand or having its own point of view. It is almost a manufacturer,\u201d and, given the changes in the world, he believes it is time \u201cto create the voice, the personality and the character\u201d of Burleigh through different platforms, digital and physical \u201cto be able to try to articulate our story and to make sure that people understand where things come from, the personality of things. How do they fit within my world and my life? With ceramics, it\u2019s an incredibly intimate kind of product because we live with it every single day, we bring it to our lips. It touches our body when we drink from our favorite cup each morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIn that way, he found many similarities with Burberry, as people told him they had grown up with Calico or with Asiatic Pheasants, two of Burleigh\u2019s storied patterns.<\/p>\n
\n\tSince Burleigh was in administration as late as June, Bailey said the efforts made to revive the brand are \u201ca labor of love,\u201d and that given the very small budgets \u2014 \u201cbasically a ham sandwich and a packet of crisps\u201d \u2014 he has relied on \u201cthe kindness of friends,\u201d including photographer Chris Rhodes for the new website unveiled in October.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI consider us as a 175-year-old start-up because we have no systems. We\u2019re all on paper. We are a Victorian company, so we have much to do. I\u2019ve had to basically just become incredibly humble and incredibly good and quite brave because it\u2019s out of character for me to call and say, \u2018Is there any way you can help me build this, make this, do this?\u2019 I\u2019m working with brilliant, creative people, creative thinkers that I\u2019ve had the privilege and pleasure of working with for many years in other lives to try and make this very important British brand flourish again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tUnderstanding the history of Burleigh helped Bailey transition from an expansive fashion company with big budgets like Burberry. \u201cI often think of a brand just as a person. It has a character and a personality, and you\u2019ve got to understand where it comes from to know where it can go.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe said he is \u201ca firm believer that there is an end to some brands, some companies,\u201d and that \u201cthey\u2019ve had an amazing moment, but there is no more road left for them.\u201d This was not so for Burberry and equally for Burleigh \u2014 as he joked that he only works with companies that start with the syllables B-u-r \u201cto make it really easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe cited Burberry\u2019s trenchcoats that continue to be made in Castleford, West Yorkshire, and at Burleigh \u201ctoday we still have the same Victorian cogs, one machine that has been there since 1868 and never stopped, that we oil every day, and basically, it\u2019s to make sure the liquid clay that is underground to move, because otherwise, it turns solid.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBailey is working on distribution and evolving Burleigh\u2019s operating model into a make-to-order one. \u201cWe sit in the most unbelievable kind of stores around the world and the most unbelievable hospitality and Michelin[-starred] restaurants. It\u2019s a very, very high-end, elegant, sophisticated product that can be used every day, because when our founders created it, they didn\u2019t know this, but they made it dishwasher-proof.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe underscored, however, the importance of not rushing any decision, since each requires investments, so that the business needs to be built \u201cin a very methodical, very thoughtful way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBailey is embracing his new life, a \u201ccompletely different life, and I\u2019m loving it. At Burberry, I had this great privilege of leading many teams, and there was a lot of infrastructure around me. And now I\u2019m moving boxes. I\u2019m making everyone coffee. I\u2019m starting from the beginning. It\u2019s really, really hard work. Burberry was intensely hard work. This is intensely hard work, but I\u2019m loving rolling up my sleeves, learning something new.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe also feels that this new professional life is an example for his two daughters after always telling them that \u201cit doesn\u2019t matter what you do in life. Follow your heart. Find the thing that you love doing, and hopefully one day somebody might pay you for it. But stick with it. And I felt that I was kind of trying to kind of explain that and give that as the value of our family.\u2026I\u2019ve always been a hard worker, but my kids have never really seen me working in that way professionally, in a very humble way and right at the bottom, and I\u2019m trying to learn a new skill whilst using my experience from my my past lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
#Christopher #Bailey #Reviving #Burleigh #Pottery<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI feel like it\u2019s like \u2018Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,\u2019\u201d said Christopher Bailey of the Burleigh Pottery plant in Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. In June, Bailey, the former designer and chief… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-pick"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}