From Ted to toe: How a brand refresh hopes to put Ted Baker back on the map

2024 was a rocky year for British heritage brand Ted Baker after No Ordinary Designer Label, the holding company for Ted Baker’s operations in the UK and Europe, filed for administration. Following the collapse, administrator Teneo announced the closure of 15 Ted Baker stores which resulted in 245 job losses at the fashion brand by the end of the year.

The doom and gloom for Ted took a turn after United Legwear Apparel Company (ULAC) came to the rescue of the brand in the UK and Europe as well as its previous lifeline of rescuing the brand’s wholesale, concessions shops and ecommerce operations in the US and Canada.

Things continued to look up for Ted when it was also confirmed in November that the former managing director, Ryan Llewellyn-Pace, had snapped up the brand’s UK and European wholesale arm.

Llewellyn-Pace’s business, Pace Partnership London, signed a deal with a subsidiary of Ted Baker operating partner PDS, New Lobster, at the end of the year to manage the wholesale business moving forward. 

So with a brand refresh in a bid to make Ted Baker “the leading British lifestyle brand in the market” well and truly in action, Retail Week had a first look at the first collection under Llewellyn-Pace and his team’s watch. 

With hero pieces as well as new additions in the first phase of the relaunch on offer, Retail Week explores what’s on the horizon for Ted Baker moving forward and if it can get back to being a leader in its field.

Something old, something new

With design being at the heart of the new era of Ted Baker, the wholesale business remains laser-focused on creating timeless, elevated pieces which nod to the brand’s British heritage.

In an exclusive tour of the new Ted Baker showroom, the team showed Retail Week its full range of womenswear, menswear and accessories for autumn/winter 2025. With reimagined hero silhouettes like the Ziara and Zellie maxi dresses, reversible coats with a range of tailored and oversized fits, and both iconic Ted tote bags as well as new on-trend baguette style bags on offer, there really is something for everyone this time round.

Ted Baker chief product officer Kevin Gallagher told Retail Week that by bringing back a nod to three decades of Ted Baker in the new collections, while also making it relevant in today’s fashion sphere, the business hopes to attract both old and new customers.

“This season, our focus has been to continue to build cohesion across the collections, offering the full collection our partners and customers expect,” he said.

“Building on our brand’s signature strengths – its Britishness, its iconic hero products, quality and timelessness, punctuated with our prints designed in-house – we’ve crafted a collection that celebrates the classic essence of three decades of Ted Baker’s rich style, blending heritage with contemporary relevance.” 

Product vs brand

As momentum builds around the launch of Ted Baker’s autumn/winter 2025 collection, the spotlight is very much on the new product. But what about the reintroduction and rebuild of a brand that has taken some beating of late?

Retail analyst and consultant Maureen Hinton says that where Ted Baker fell on its sword previously was a combination of losing appeal due to rising price points, an arguably too-niche focus on occasionwear and strong prints that very much went out of fashion. She adds that Ted Baker now has “the right people running it” moving forward and credited their commercial experience as a team behind the new wholesale version of the business.

Despite this, re-establishing a brand can be onerous and is arguably the bigger challenge moving forward. With this in mind, Hinton points out that there is a fine line between getting back the brand’s heritage and classic feel while also riding the wave of fashion trends.

“It’s going to be all about establishing a handwriting that people want to buy into again because it did have that but in a way it went out of the trends. People are going to buy it because of the style and appeal in terms of trends so it’s about getting back to that,” she said.

“It’s so much harder to try and re-establish a brand because it’s loyal followers would have seen the shops close and when people see shops close they think that is the end anyway.

“Ted Baker has got to build up that personality again so that people buy into the brand as much as the product by reinventing but also without relying on so much what the brand was and rather what it can be.”

So while it remains to be seen if the brand can garner the same level of attention and popularity as it once had, high-quality pieces, a shift towards newness and retaining known and loved styles seem to certainly be kicking things off in the right direction.