Burberry will be looking to put to bed recent troubles as new chief creative officer Riccardo Tisci unveils his first collection for the house at London fashion week.

The company attracted widespread criticism in August following the revelation that it destroyed £28.6m worth of unsold product last year. It quickly denounced the practice, with CEO Marco Gobbetti, saying that it was “just not modern”. At the same time, he announced that the use of animal fur would be banned with immediate effect, creating a clean slate ahead of Tisci’s debut on Monday.

“This marks a new era for the brand, and one that is focused on communicating and putting new values into action,” says Kathryn Bishop, deputy foresight editor at the Future Laboratory. “It is having to show its existing and target customers that it is driven to both do and be better.”

The 44-year-old Italian designer, who follows in the footsteps of Christopher Bailey’s 17-year tenure, has form for breathing new life into a heritage house. Prior to his appointment at Burberry, he worked at Givenchy – the house famous for its elegant gowns worn by the likes of Audrey Hepburn – for 12 years. During his tenure, the brand increased more than six-fold. He tripled the number of employees from 290 to 930 and departed as brand revenues topped $540m. Its popularity soared, too, thanks to his influential celebrity following – he designed Kim Kardashian’s wedding dress for her nuptials to Kanye West – and being an early pioneer of streetwear codes in the luxury arena.

“Riccardo did an amazing job reinventing, while staying true to Givenchy,” says Ida Petersson, womenswear buying director at the fashion retailer Browns, who wants to see Tisci bring “some of that edgy romance that he does so well” to the house. “He was a part of the first wave of making the logo, T-shirt and sweatshirt a luxury item, so I’m looking forward to seeing what he does.”

Tisci has already given clues of what Burberry under his tenure will look like. In July, he announced he would be collaborating with Vivienne Westwood. “[She] was one of the first designers who made me dream to become a designer myself … she is a rebel, a punk, and unrivalled in her unique representation of British style,” said Tisci in a press release. He also enlisted graphic designer Peter Saville to overhaul the house’s logo for the first time in 20 years, moving towards a more logo-centric interlocking of T and B, the initials of the brand’s founder Thomas Burberry. Last week on Instagram, he posted a picture of him wearing a black T-shirt with the new logo in white.

Tisci’s appointment doesn’t just mark a change in style, but in strategy, too. While the brand has stepped back from the controversial see-now, buy-now model it introduced in 2016, Tisci’s black T-shirt was made available for 24 hours only through its Instagram and WeChat (the Chinese multi-purpose app) accounts. It marks the first time that the brand has created a tailored digital selling experience on social media. Following the show, a number of additional items will be made available in a similar series of “24-hour releases”.

“Clearly, Burberry is targeting a younger, digitally driven consumer, both western and Chinese, [who] are trend-conscious consumers that are engaging with apps 24/7,” says Bishop, who notes that Chinese consumers aged 15-29 make up 60% of WeChat’s users. “By choosing WeChat and Instagram, Burberry is making it hyper-convenient for these shoppers to be the first to snap up these pieces by taking designs straight to them via the digital platforms they frequent.”

Tapping into the younger market has already proven profitable for the brand. The resurrection of its signature check through a collaboration with Gosha Rubchinskiy last year ticked the 90s nostalgia trend box which, for teenagers and twentysomethings, amounts to vintage-meets-hype gold. It also boosted profits. According to its preliminary results for the year to 31 March, the brand’s pre-tax profit rose 5% to £413m, with attributable profit growing year-on-year from £287m to £294m (year-on-year total revenue went down slightly by 1%, from £2.76bn to £2.73bn).

“While the task of transforming Burberry is still before us, the first steps we implemented to re-energise our brand are showing promising early signs,” said Gobbetti. “With Riccardo Tisci now on board and a strong leadership team in place, we are excited about the year ahead and remain fully focused on our strategy to deliver long-term sustainable value.”

Coincidentally, Tisci makes his debut in the same month that former Dior Homme and Saint Laurent designer Hedi Slimane – famed for his skinny suits and rock-star aesthetic – unveils his first collection for Céline, a house Phoebe Philo made famous for pared-back minimalism. From experience, Petersson thinks the appointments could bode well.

“It’s always exciting to see someone new come in and make some noise. Generally speaking, our customers’ response has been positive when a new designer steps in and shakes things up.”