Photo: TYRONE LEBON
Burberry Creative Expression by Daniel Lee
The New Burberry is here.
Daniel Lee, the one-time Bottega Veneta designer who was announced as Burberry's new creative lead last fall, has given the world a first look at his reimagination of the brand.
Gone are the British goths at the beach, wearing heavy black eyeshadow and a little bit of plaid, from the reign of his predecessor, Riccardo Tisci. The Burberry Instagram feed was wiped clean this past weekend. Twelve new photos now make up the house’s entire Instagram presence, as of yesterday afternoon.
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Those images, captured by Lee favorite Tyron Lebon, have a feeling of weighty Britishness, with exclusively British talent like musicians John Glacier, Shygirl and Skepta, actor Vanessa Redgrave, models Lennon Gallagher and Liberty Ross, and soccer player Raheem Sterling. They grasp at trench coat lapels, and sniff white roses at London landmarks like Trafalgar Square and Albert Bridge. In an accompanying video, scored and narrated by Glacier, she can be heard saying, “Let it rain and let it pour, so cue the showers now.” The only thing more British then that is the heritage trench she wears while posing in a downpour over the Thames.
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Photo: TYRONE LEBON
Burberry Creative Expression by Daniel Lee
Lebon also helped Lee immortalize his time at Bottega Veneta, from 2018 to 2021, with similar campaigns featuring candid cool kids soaked in his camera’s flash. But in an era when British identity grows ever complicated under the pressures of Brexit, Lebon and Lee's vision—suggesting a diverse, brash, and perversely classic notion of Britishness—feels even more at home at Burberry. (One of Lee's other notable moves at Bottega Veneta was to delete the house's Instagram account; now, it seems, he's returned to its double-tapping embrace.)
This “first creative expression of Burberry,” as it has been called in a corresponding press release, notably features the house’s Equestrian Knight Design from 1901 superimposed on each photo like a stamp, which Tisci replaced five years ago with the interlocked “TB” logo. The knight is also holding a flag that reads, “Prorsum,” the latin word for “forward,” and the name of the early aughts diffusion brand under creative director Christopher Bailey, which made up a significant portion of Alexa Chung’s Tumblr-famous wardrobe in 2010. Whether the Prorsum line itself is being revived is not yet known; Lee’s first collection debuts on February 20 at London Fashion Week.
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Whereas last fashion week, Instagram commenters flocked to the account to express their discontent with the goth Burberry-wearing punks—while also offering to cleanse their souls—they have a different message this time around, one of acceptance. They actually dig it! Most of them were enthusiastically celebrating the return of the knight, while one another exclaimed, "THANK YOU DANIEL LEE WE NEEDED THIS." Deep in the comment section, some younger users said they loved the new logo, and some older fans chimed in and corrected them: "It's actually the old logo."
So while Burberry's "new look" is giving old school brand stans comfort with its familiarity, it's clearly also doing its part in making the next class of check-wearing fangirls too.
This article originally appeared on Harper's BAZAAR US.