Long before the first model emerged at Burberry’s blockbuster London Fashion Week show last night, anticipation was high. The collection marked the debut of Daniel Lee, the 37-year-old Bradford-born designer, who was appointed chief creative officer of the British heritage brand last September following Riccardo Tisci’s departure.
It’s a huge job, one of fashion’s biggest, but Lee has form when it comes to reenergising a heritage house. During his three-and-a-half-year tenure at Bottega Veneta, from 2018 to 2021, Lee injected the Italian luxury brand with an all-new swagger and zeitgeisty desirability. Then a relative unknown alum of Phoebe Philo’s Céline, the risk paid off. Revenue increased, as did the brand’s cultural clout.
Today, Lee is a big name. Testament to this – and Burberry’s global, mega-brand standing – was the celebrity heavy front row. Naomi Campbell, Jodie Comer, Stormzy, Damon Albarn, Rosie Hungtington-Whiteley and Vanessa Redgrave were among the national treasures who made the trip to Kennington Park. Also in attendance were fellow fashion designers Christopher Kane, Grace Wales Bonner, and Martine Rose. Christopher Bailey, former Burberry creative director and president, sat next to Anna Wintour.
Bailey’s presence, plus the hot water bottles placed on blanket strewn seats, seemed to hint at a deliberate return to the rose-tinted, crowd-pleasing days of the 2010s Burberry. It turned out that Lee’s perception of the brand as one rooted in ‘functionality, daytime, on-the-go’ was shot through with a punkish attitude. So, yes, there were trench coats, but they came in bottle green with faux fur collars. The house’s signature check came in poppy shades of purple, red and yellow. Also in the mix were playful, Instagram-pleasers, like slogan T-shirts, cartoonishly large trapper hats and XXL versions of the new Equestrian Knight logo. Lee knows that accessories matter, and he delivered those by the dozen. He has enjoyed working out the narrative of Burberry bags, he explained, and wanted the jumbo messenger bags to have a ‘chuck it on the floor’ unpreciousness.
Backstage, Lee talked about celebrating Burberry’s Britishness. His triumph was to swerve pastiche and obviousness. Ducks were a recurring motif, because they made him think of the parks and the rain. The casting of celebrity children Iris Law and Lennon Gallagher seemed to be a bit of an in-joke; celebrity offspring as the alternative royals.
‘I think so much great creativity comes out of London, look at Vivienne [Westwood], there are so many examples of amazing people from this city and I think what’s so unique about London, and why I’m so happy to be back here, is you’re so inspired all the time,’ Lee said. ‘You go down the street and you’re surrounded by people from so many different walks of life all living together, and that’s something that I missed in recent years and being back here really excites me again’.
In the wake of Brexit, with strikes and politics in meltdown mode, Lee above all wanted his Burberry to be positive. ‘I want it to, hopefully, show some positivity about Britain to the world and again remind people that great creativity often comes from here. There are great schools here, there’s great music, there’s great theatre, there’s great art and I think it’s good to shine a light on those things’.
