IT STARTED with the news of the brand’s takeover of North London’s Norman’s Cafe. Then they paraded their Equestrian Knight Logo on the screens of Piccadilly Circus. And the final piece to their takeover was changing Bond Street tube station to Burberry Street.
You couldn’t have missed the heightened countdown for Daniel Lee’s sophomore collection for the Burberry if you tried.
Drawing in an impressive front row, from the likes of Skepta, Kano and Micheal Ward, to Kylie Minogue and Rachel Weisz, even footballers Bukayo Saka and Son Heung-min, all taking time to watch the spring-summer 2024 collection unfold.
While Lee’s first show was in Kennington Park in South London, he decided to head north to Highbury Fields, slowly finding his way across the four main points of the capital to spread the Burberry aesthetic.
Against a backdrop of Dean Blunt’s music and the typical London park greenery, SS24 was all about Lee reimagining the brand’s famous trench coat for the summer. With this piece being such a vocal point for Burberry, it seems apt that even during the summer months the designer is looking at keeping the piece at the heart of the brand’s message.
Through ‘lightness, sensuality, beauty and elegance’, he twisted and turned the trench, debuting the formal outerwear piece in new ways – inside-out, upside down and even back to front, playing with its silhouette by having it slide off shoulders and slung on backs like capes.
Unlike the previous collection and campaigns, SS24 did not stick to using the Burberry check. Instead, new graphic floral patterns inspired by British fruits and countryside meadows, found themselves at the centre of the collection with hints of Burberry’s new royal blue shade popping up occasionally in prints, hems and jackets.
But what became increasingly more evident was Lee’s role as an accessory designer. Having revived Bottega Veneta through his brilliant use of grass green and meticulous contemporary touch to handbags, looking at Burberry whose heritage, unlike really any other brand, has been ready-to-wear – the trench coat and anything with the tartan check.
Handbags, whether clutched onto or worn over the shoulder came in bucket loads of variations of sizes and colours, making it clear that soon it will be time to get yourself a Burberry bag because, with the designer’s track record, I am in no doubt it will become an ‘it’ bag that you will want to be seen wearing.
While this may be Lee’s second offering for Burberry, he is still laying the foundations of what the brand looks like today. It’s a marathon not a sprint in his eyes. He is slowly returning Burberry to its heritage roots, and it’s a wonderful breath of British fresh air in a fashion landscape that relies on trends and modernity.
by Imogen Clark