Coaching and advisory · fashion and luxury
I coach people in fashion at two points in a career: when you are working towards a senior role, and when you hold one and have to make and defend big decisions. I developed product at Burberry and at adidas, ran a knitwear factory, and trained in psychology and CBT.
Tell me where you are and where you want to get to. You hear back within two working days to arrange a first call, with no obligation on either side.
I have been the person in the room who was expected to have the answer, and the person on the factory floor who had to live with it.
Guest speaker · Lectra, October 2026 · London College of Fashion, November 2026 · Kingston University
Experience across
Career experience and areas of practice
Coaching
One is for getting to the senior role. The other is for what happens once you are in it and the decisions are yours. They are separate, and most people need only one.
For your next role
For people in fashion and luxury working towards a senior role or a bigger scope: the role you want, how you come across with the people who decide, reading senior dynamics, and keeping your standards as your responsibilities grow.
For leaders
For directors and executives who have to make and defend decisions the whole business will live with, including the technology ones: a call before each big decision, a monthly session in between, and a thinking partner who has been on the product side.
Advisory · for brands, their suppliers and their investors
Independent judgement on product, process and technology decisions in fashion, from someone who has made the product on both sides of the factory line and has no software to sell. Four ways to work with me, each before you sign, and each ends in a written recommendation.
The evidence ladder
Evidence for one rung tells you nothing about the next, and too many decisions are made on the first rung as if they had reached the fifth. Once a year I read the technology luxury houses have announced against this ladder, using only their own published documents; the first edition is published on 25 March 2027.
The five rules, and where AI is already doing a real jobWho
I grew up in a knitwear factory that supplied luxury houses, developed product at Burberry and at adidas on the adidas by Stella McCartney line, then ran the factory. What you get from that is someone who can tell a workflow problem from a technology problem, and who has spoken about this for Lectra, London College of Fashion and Kingston University.
You also get independence: no fees or commissions from technology vendors, and no software to build or integrate. Advice is only worth having if the adviser has nothing riding on the answer.
About me
The brand side
Specification, materials, construction, sampling and the handovers between design, technical and the factory, at Burberry and on the adidas by Stella McCartney line. The decisions and the detail behind a product before it reaches the customer.
The factory side
Samples, approvals, lead times and a house’s requirements seen from the other side of the table. A practical understanding of what a brand expects and what a factory can deliver.
The coaching side
Coaching training in psychology and cognitive behavioural approaches, applied to the two moments I know from the inside: working towards the senior role, and holding one when the decisions are yours.
