Political Persuasion

Ivory tower designer? Not Christopher Bailey. In town last week to show Burberry Prorsum resort, the Brit proved much more interested in chatting about the Hillary-Obama battle than in offering cute sound bytes on his charming collection. “Our system seems tribal compared to yours,” he said. “We have all that back-stabbing in the houses of Parliament. Yours is a true democratic selection.” Bailey noted that his friends in the U.K. had followed the contest carefully. Hillary had been viewed as the clear favorite, the political establishment and highly experienced, and Obama, charming and very bright but ultimately, “a mystery. He came from nowhere, we’d never heard of him. People assumed she would get the Democratic vote. It was a shock.” Asked about Brit impressions of John McCain, Bailey shrugged. “Well,” he said, “In my circle, people are less interested in his politics.”