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).
Kurt Geiger dress Kylie Jenner and Jennifer Lopez: they also run an academy to help disadvantaged youth When Neil Clifford finished school in the early 1980s, he had one O-Level and no clear path forward.
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.
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.
Leaving school at 16, he worked with friends in a Fiat workshop and briefly considered doing a car mechanics apprenticeship before deciding to work on the floor of a Principles for Men clothing store in Guildford – an unglamorous job that involved stacking shelves and taking stock.
