Could Riccardo Tisci leave Burberry? For now only a rumor, but that comes at a critical time for the brand

Last night, the senior editor of Love Magazine, Pierre A. M'Péle, posted a now-deleted tweet that said, "Riccardo Tisci is leaving Burberry." As often happens, these news must be taken with precaution and even the brand has defined the unfounded assumptions, but often in the fashion world, where so much importance is given to appearances, certain gossips possess a bottom of truth. The first rumor about Raf Simons' arrival at Prada, after all, came from a tweet published and immediately deleted. M'Pelé himself then suggested that Tisci's next job could be that of co-creative director of Versace. As for his (hypothetical) successor, the web voices have made the name of Clare Waight Keller, a British designer recently released by Givenchy after a series of collections appreciated but commercially unexciting.

Since the pandemic came, Burberry's sales have halved and recovered slightly in June, with Chinese stores reopening. But, as Business of Fashion reports, if brands such as Louis Vuitton and Swatch have seen sales growth in China of 50% and 60%, Burberry's have increased only 30%. The brand also said it expects sales to fall by between 15% and 20% in the current quarter – essentially saying that no notable improvement in performance is expected. Now, even though sales are picking up, Burberry's shares in the market have tumbled 8% while those of other brands and luxury groups are slowly rising again. Based on this data, Robert Williams noted, in the same Business of Fashion article, that "investors believe there are problems specific to Burberry's business".