I’m a luxury womenswear designer, and I have only ever worked in luxury: Cerruti in Paris, sixteen years at Burberry, and most recently Tom Ford. I joined Burberry as part of the team that turned it into a true luxury brand. As Head of Design I led a team of ten across ready-to-wear, outerwear, knitwear, jersey and denim, and designed the tailoring, leather and softs myself, while the London line grew from £42M to £140M a year. I then ran outerwear and tailoring for nine years, working with the archive and with mills in Italy and Asia, and my pieces made 80% of the line’s womenswear bestsellers. In 2024 I joined Tom Ford as a consultant and worked with Haider Ackermann on the AW25 show in Paris. What I love most is working with a team to build beautiful garments that are well made, with a real focus on fit, cut and fabric. And they have to sell, so I always work closely with merchandising. I’m based in London and open to Design Director and Head of Design roles, as well as consultancy projects.
Delivering the AW25 Show Under Haider Ackerman artistic direction. Delivering two main collections and 2 pre collections per year. Designing Outerwear, Tailoring, Dresses, Tops and Jersey.
Designing and managing the entire outerwear collection for the London line (wool coats, rainwear, sportswear, puffers and quilts). Delivering two main collections and four capsules collections per year. Research and development of all fabrics, accessories and trims in Italy and Asia. Providing direction to English, Asian and Italian pattern makers, factories and suppliers around the world. Generating 80% of the overall womenswear London line best sellers with a consistent double digit growth from 2008 to 2014.
Managing the design team (outerwear, denim wear, knitwear, jersey wear, lingerie and swimwear) and designing tailoring and leather. Driving sales from 42 millions pounds in 2001 to 140 millions in 2007 (per year). Supervising the fittings for the entire collections from prototypes to show room through to production. Look book styling. Presentation and handoff of the entire collection to the international sales teams.
Key designer in the development of a 500 pieces collection (per season) divided in five delivery groups.
I worked with Gwendoline for several years at Burberry, where she was a senior design lead for womenswear while I headed product development. She combines a very strong creative vision with clear commercial judgement and is particularly at turning shifting brand priorities into modern womenswear and outerwear that performs. Gwen is also a highly trusted team leader, she supports and develops younger designers, shares her knowledge generously and collaborates well across product development, merchandising, suppliers and other functions. I would not hesitate to recommend her for any senior design role.
I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Gwendoline. She is an extremely talented and hard-working designer. Her dedication to completing projects at the highest level is hard to match. she’s also one of the most collaborative supportive and communicative team members I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with. She has a huge sense of responsibility and will stop at nothing to complete a project to the very best of her ability. She is an asset to any company lucky enough to hire her.