LONDON, U.K.: Burberry will look to prove its turnaround strategy is working when it unveils its latest collection at London Fashion Week on September 22, hoping its refocus on British heritage and classic trench coats can win back shoppers and investors.

Since taking charge last year, CEO Joshua Schulman has sought to reposition the 168-year-old brand by tightening its creative direction, cutting jobs, and enlisting British cultural icons like Oscar-winning Olivia Colman and Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher in campaigns. He has been openly critical of his predecessor’s strategy, saying some recent designs carried a “niche aesthetic” that was “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.

Creative director Daniel Lee’s influence has shifted since Schulman linked design more closely with commercial teams. Hired in September 2022, Lee’s future has been the subject of speculation. “Josh has normalised the relationship between a chief executive and a creative director,” said Jeremy Smith, UK equities portfolio manager at Columbia Threadneedle. “It’s obviously important to Burberry who their creative director is, but it shouldn’t define the business.”

Schulman has leaned on social media campaigns to amplify Burberry’s identity, casting Colman — known globally for portraying Queen Elizabeth II in Netflix’s The Crown — and staging shoots around cultural moments like the Glastonbury music festival. The brand also received a high-profile nod this week when U.S. First Lady Melania Trump stepped off Air Force One in London wearing a Burberry trench coat ahead of President Donald Trump’s state visit.

“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.

Investors have cheered Schulman’s approach, with Burberry shares rising 50 percent since he took over and a 20 percent reduction in the workforce helping to reset costs. But the brand’s biggest test lies ahead: the crucial autumn and winter season, when luxury houses earn the bulk of their sales.

Burberry has posted seven straight quarters of negative like-for-like sales growth, though its most recent decline narrowed to just 1 percent year-on-year. Analysts now expect sales to return to growth this quarter as the turnaround begins to take hold.

“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,” Farmbrough said.