Today, Christopher Bailey is airborne from Boston, headed for Milan to work on his men’s show—hotfooting it from the launch of his pre-spring collection and addressing a worldwide Burberry conference in New York last week. Such is the speedy summer schedule of the boyish-looking 39-year-old chief creative director of Burberry, under whose leadership the company is streaking ahead in the Internet communication-and-selling stakes. “I’ve always been a bit of a gadget nerd, so I love what technology can do,” says the man who scored a fashion click-to-buy coup when he put Burberry Prorsum’s hit aviator outerwear online immediately after the show was globally live-streamed in 3-D from London. Those insanely desirable shearlings were in the hands of the first customers who placed their orders “oh, six weeks ago . . . or longer,” Bailey reports. “The reaction was just incredible. The way people were caught up in the emotion of the show and then could act on it.” Backed by military-organized pre–bulk buying of Australian sheepskins, the operation was planned down to the last refinement. Customers were told the preorder window would slam shut after five days, thus instigating a breakneck shopping race. Very clever, very forward thinking indeed. “Well, this is such a young-old company,” he says. “I mean, Burberry was founded in 1856, but the whole gang is really young, so it’s natural for us that technology is integrated into literally every single thing we do now. Actually, we just hired someone from Xbox.” All eyes, then, on what they’re cooking up next. Latest on the fashion front: resort. “I really wanted to continue the feel of the aviator collection for fall, so we looked at thirties and forties colonial uniforms in the archive and mixed them with exotic skins, lizard and python.” But what is this weird delivery that arrives in shops before Christmas, when it’s nastily subzero in many places (pre-spring? Isn’t that winter?), yet hot in others where global Burberry-wearers might be dwelling or holidaying? The geographically pragmatic Bailey has climate awareness organized: There are great leopard-printed rabbit-fur coats and thigh-high leather boots at one end, and lace trenches and camisole dresses at the other. All the ruching and draping, and the slim khaki officer tailoring, in the meanwhile, plays out Burberry’s familiar signatures of the last few seasons.

More to the point, though—since design leadership is only a fraction of Bailey’s responsibilities these days—is what he told the summit of Burberry executives in New York last week. “I’ve been saying to people, we’ve gone from being a clothing company to being a fashion-and-media company. Five years ago, we got our own small photography studio—and now, in our new building at Horseferry House in London, we’ve got a proper film set down there with a major postproduction suite,” he says. “But the other thing is, I think you can get stuck on the technology. To me it’s just another way of talking to someone. You have to feel there’s a person behind it, rather than a cold, glossy selling facade. The big thing here is humanity plus technology.” Making things more real and direct is what excites him—especially what he sees on the Burberry Art of the Trench Web wall, where people from all over the world contribute daily, posting street pictures of themselves wearing raincoats, and leaving comments. “I’m checking it the whole time and find people’s ideas, that energy and enthusiasm, so inspiring. You have to look outside—that’s something I’m always saying, too. You’ve got to be careful in fashion not to end up talking to yourself, just trying to impress one another.” Any surprises up his sleeve for next season’s London multimedia show event, then? All he’s saying is “We’ve got lots of projects bubbling,” but it won’t be something just for the sake of it because everyone else is rushing in one direction or the other. “It’s like, apps. I really resisted doing an app. I don’t want to get into checking boxes. I tell people we should focus on who we are.” And between now and then, and all the traveling, what’s in his plan for summer? “Well,” he says, laughing. “I do need to get back home and have a pint.”