Burberry creative director Christopher Bailey was in town last night to light up the Burberry sign on the top of the label’s new U.S. headquarters at 444 Madison Avenue, New York’s old offices. He doesn’t know what happened to the old New York sign that used to stand there, but said he wanted the new sign to have an original point of view. “I wanted it to look like it had been there forever. And I wanted it to work with the New York skyline; I didn’t want it to be too garish, either,” Bailey explained after the official lighting. “We looked at the proportions to make sure it would work with the skyline.”
Bailey was mum on Burberry’s menswear show walking next month. “I couldn’t possibly talk about it right now, but it’s going back to the roots of what Burberry is about,” he said. Ooh, might that mean plaid? Bailey added that the company isn’t scaling back on the show, despite the economy. “But we’re being very thoughtful about the way that we use the funds that we have.” Though the CEO of Versace reportedly wanted to cut back on advertising budgets by, say, not paying Mario Testino’s $140,000 a day fee, Bailey thinks it’s worth it. “You’re buying talent. And I think talent never goes away with the changing economy, and talent is something we all need to keep nurturing.” Also: giant electric logo signs! Below, watch a video of the new sign going up.
