Beauty

Outside interests

Christopher Bailey loves the outdoors, but what else does he fancy? Burberry’s Creative Director on baking bread, bangers and mash and his signature scent.

by : Sarah Daniel Dolphin- Feb 1st, 2010

Pro active
I walk a lot. I have dogs, so I walk my dogs. I run, I swim and I do a lot of gardening as well. I can literally spend my whole day outdoors. When I was a kid, I always cycled everywhere and I have a bike now. I’m very comfortable being outside.

First class
[I remember the smell of] my school uniform‹it was institutional. It was a white shirt, a tie, a blazer, and black trousers but it was my blazer particularly.

Fresh obsessed
My grandmother was Italian and she was always cooking. She’d get up at like 5:30 a.m. and bake bread for the day. It’s kind of surreal when I think about it now. Her house always smelled of freshly baked bread and coffee, ground coffee‹she ground her own coffee.

Easy bake
I just bought a bread maker. But that’s kind of useless. I’ve used it once and I bought it two months ago. It feels phony doing it because you don’t do anything you just pour everything in.

Scent memories
The very first fragrance that my parents bought me, when I was 15 or so, was Jazz by YSL. And then when I was 16, someone I worked for bought me Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet. And I’ve worn it ever since. It’s one of my favourites.

Comfort food
In Yorkshire, my favourite [restaurant] is my local pub. This is really embarrassing, but they know I love bangers and mash.

Beverage cart
I like old booze. I mainly drink wine, red wine, or I drink vodka tonics, or I love caipirinhas. Christmas Eve is always caipirinha night and I try to extend Christmas Eve as often as I can. I love mulled wine. I love Campari orange. I’m not very discriminating!

Crash pad
I’m not really a hotel person, I don’t love hotels. I mean I’m in hotels so much for work that I much prefer to spend it with friends in their homes or in my homes.

Fashion film
I’m not someone who gets obsessed with fashion and film. I mean, I love imagery and I get seduced by imagery but I’m not someone who really hones in on the fashion, I kind of like the whole package of the architecture, the era, the characters.

Travel must haves
They’re all technology-based. It’s always a spare battery for my iPhone. I always have to have my macBook air and all the plugs that go with that.

Top tweets
I was following Stephen Fry for a long time.

Bedside book
I’m reading Stephen Spender’s biography.