When Neil Clifford finished school in the early 1980s, he had one O-Level and no clear path forward. The son of a gas-fitter who died when he was four, Clifford and his three older brothers were raised by a single mother on low income. Today, he’s the CEO of Kurt Geiger – a brand that dresses Kylie Jenner, Jennifer Lopez and is currently on a British invasion of the US, with their digital business now five times its UK size – which is saying something (their UK revenue was up ten percent last year). Under Clifford’s leadership, Kurt Geiger has transformed from a shoe brand struggling to find its place in the market to one of London’s premium fashion exports – not bad for a company staring down the barrel of bankruptcy during the pandemic.
Now, Kurt Geiger are in a position to give back. Last year, they launched the Business by Design Academy via the Kurt Geiger Kindness Foundation: a seven-month course teaching disadvantaged young people how to break into the creative industry. The programme, advocated by brand ambassador and London fashion icon Adwoa Aboah, consists of masterclass sessions run by in-house industry experts, and time in the studio where students can develop their own ideas and personal projects.
