Mulberry

Carries Mulberry's planned runway return into the Spring/Summer 2027 London Fashion Week context under Christopher Kane.

Mulberry appointed Christopher Kane Creative Director of Women’s Ready-to-Wear on 26 March 2026. The limited remit restores seasonal womenswear and runway authorship while leaving leather goods and the wider product and image system under the internal Creative Studio.

The Back to the Mulberry Spirit reorganisation formally established a Creative Studio in January 2025. Henrietta Gallina was promoted to Creative Studio Director and Azalee Beaux to Director of Product, making the internal division of image and product leadership visible without assigning either person sole authorship of every bag.

Mulberry marked its fiftieth anniversary with guest projects by Priya Ahluwalia, Richard Malone and Nicholas Daley, while Alexa Chung produced a separate 2021 collaboration. The series established a bounded way for outside designers to alter archive bags and materials without assuming continuous authority over the main line.

After Coca’s departure, Mulberry did not appoint an overall successor and allowed the Onward ready-to-wear and footwear licence to end with the 2020 cycle. The internal studio concentrated on leather goods, image, circular services and bounded guest projects, while later apparel appeared through capsules rather than an uninterrupted seasonal line.

Mulberry announced Coca’s departure on 17 March 2020, and his operational tenure ended on 31 March. Work completed before he left was delivered later, but the disputed convention around Autumn/Winter 2020 and Spring/Summer 2021 prevents the final collection from being collapsed into this structural departure record.

Johnny Coca assumed operational authority on 8 July 2015 with responsibility for leather goods, ready-to-wear, footwear, packaging and global image. His tenure reworked the wordmark, established Mulberry Green and the Rider’s Lock, and shifted later product development towards circular materials and services.

An unnamed design team led Mulberry from late 2013 until Johnny Coca began in July 2015. The studio maintained leather goods and seasonal presentations, including the Cara Delevingne collaboration, without a named overall creative director.

Hill’s resignation was announced on 10 June 2013 after disagreement over the company’s pricing direction. Spring/Summer 2014, shown on 15 September, was her final designed collection and marks the last material boundary of her authorship.

Emma Hill began as Mulberry creative director in February 2008 after her appointment was announced in December 2007. Her house-wide authority joined studio-designed leather goods, ready-to-wear, campaigns, retail and theatrical London shows in one recurring image system.

Mulberry announced Vevers’s departure for Loewe on 26 July 2007. The move ended his employed tenure while leaving the accessories-led system and campaign visibility established during his three years at the house.

Stuart Vevers began as Mulberry design director on 1 December 2004, with a practical remit extending across accessories, ready-to-wear and image. He expanded inherited Knightly products, developed his own bag families and gave the house a coherent international fashion position; later biographies often call the role Creative Director.

Knightly resigned in August 2004 to join Louis Vuitton. Product delivery continued beyond a resignation date, but the final fully authored Mulberry season is not secure enough to extend his tenure by assumption.

Nicholas Knightly joined Mulberry in late 2002 as chief designer or design director and rebuilt the offer around leather-goods architecture. He originated the Bayswater in 2003 and the Roxanne in 2004, correcting later accounts that assign both products to Stuart Vevers.

Roger Saul was removed from operational and creative control in November 2002 during the change in shareholder and board authority. His later Life President title was ceremonial, so post-2002 products and collections must not be assigned to his authorship.

Luella Bartley and external collaborator Stuart Vevers developed a Mulberry leather bag for Bartley’s Autumn/Winter 2002 runway. Its reception after Gisele Bündchen carried it demonstrated the commercial force of a contemporary guest intervention before Vevers joined Mulberry as an employee.

An unnamed Mulberry studio maintained seasonal output between Henshall’s departure and Nicholas Knightly’s arrival. The interval preserves collective authorship for Autumn/Winter 2002 and Spring/Summer 2003 instead of assigning the work to a chief executive or incoming designer.

Henshall left Mulberry in 2001 to concentrate on his own work. Because the final designed season is not securely documented, the departure is recorded at year level and later output is not attributed to him by production-calendar inference.

Mulberry appointed Scott Henshall to a house-wide creative role in 2000, covering fashion, accessories, image and retail. His brief replaced the established country-house register with a younger celebrity-facing position, but the exact effective date and final authored season remain unresolved.

Mulberry Life began in 1990 as a house-controlled magazine and catalogue, joining fashion, culture and retail in one image system. By 1996 the move to Kilver Court, an AIM listing and formalised Japanese expansion had converted that identity into an international operating structure.

Current company material dates the named or modern Rookery factory in Chilcompton to 1989. The record is kept separate from centralised Chilcompton production documented from 1973, avoiding a false single opening date.

Mulberry introduced a dedicated women’s ready-to-wear collection in 1978, extending the house beyond belts, bags and luggage. Clothing became a recurring but discontinuous category whose scale and production model changed under later directors.

Mulberry moved beyond home and outworker production into centralised activity in Chilcompton in 1973. Incorporation as Mulberry Company (Design) Limited on 12 August 1974 formalised the growing operation without replacing the brand’s 1971 foundation date.

Roger Saul founded Mulberry in Somerset in 1971 with £500 supplied by his parents, while Joan Saul became company secretary and organised early production. The shared foundation record distinguishes Roger’s principal design role from Joan’s financial, administrative and manufacturing work.