City eye for a fashion guy: Burberry splits analysts

(Sharecast News) - Burberry shares were hit as suited and booted City analysts cast their eye over the London Fashion Week debut of the fashion house's new creative director, Ricardo Tisci.JP Morgan Cazenove said it was "good news" that Tisci was "proving through the breadth of this offering that he is cognizant of the broad appeal of the Burberry brand", embracing the breadth and size of the Burberry brand in comparison to the the more niche haute couture of Givenchy."The bad news is that in trying to please everyone he might be losing out on the brand new messages. In our experience, brand turnarounds typically reduce SKUs and concentrate brand messages on fewer key pieces before re-expanding the breadth of the offer (in year 2). This is not what Burberry and R Tisci did in this first collection," analysts said, also suggesting that Burberry's daywear classic looks were "possibly too easy to copy" by the mass market."Burberry is not the next Gucci," said Societe Generale's fashionistas, though this was not a surprise.While the company expects its client base to evolve towards a more fashion-forward crowd, "the new designer probably did not want to alienate the current customer base" and current low financial for flat sales for two years and fairly modest acceleration in the pace of growth to the high single digits by 2021-22 offer "upside risk, in our view".Meanwhile, Berenberg analysts were pounding the aisles of Burberry's flagship Regent Street boutique and checking their smartphones to note that social media interaction per post following Burberry's LFW show had increased."One of the most surprising developments in Mr Tisci's reinterpretation of Burberry has been his ability to merge old and new, in our view. This is an aspect that was evident throughout the store visit, as iconic and new products were styled together."We believe this is a clear positive as luxury brands should always retain some connection to their archives to avoid becoming overly dependent on fashion trends. With this in mind, the IR team indicated that the iconic Burberry check pattern, which was very prominent throughout the store, would by no means be discontinued. Instead, it would coexist with a new TB monogram pattern, which will become more visible in November when some of Mr Tisci's new products are launched."An increased focus on leather shows is not expected to make Burberry the next leather goods "power house", but the bank's analysts believe that its revamped product design in this category is "showing some encouraging progress".Berenberg has a 'buy' on Burberry with a price target of 2,350p.