Burberry’s check has spent more than a century behaving itself. For Spring/Summer 2027, Daniel Lee decided to let it scribble in the margins.
The collection began with Celia Birtwell, the British textile designer whose work with Ossie Clark helped define the visual language of late-1960s and 1970s London. Lee invited Birtwell into the design process rather than simply referencing her archive, making the choice of Chelsea College of Arts — where she once taught — deliberate rather than decorative.
The show notes describe a “constant exchange” between Burberry’s graphic language and Birtwell’s instinctive mark-making. It is an interesting collision. Burberry’s check relies on discipline, repetition and geometry; Birtwell’s drawings have the opposite energy. Flowers wander. Faces appear mid-line.
That tension became the collection’s highlight, taking the house’s most recognisable codes and disrupting their familiar order with instinct, irregularity and the trace of the hand.
Daniel Lee described an “intentional imperfection”, shifting the focus from clothes kept immaculate to clothes that gain character through wear. It gave the collection a more lived-in quality, but also opened up the proportions. Long outer layers, generous sleeves, fluid skirts, easy shirting and softened tailoring created room around the body rather than insisting on exposure or compression. Coverage came through proportion, movement and layering.
For the modest dresser, the collection offered ways to dress with presence without relying on bareness, silk under outerwear, elongated shirts against wider trousers, dresses built through volume rather than cling. Romance came through print and movement while utility kept everything grounded.
David Bowie provided the soundtrack, chosen by Lee for his ability to find “humanity in the experiment”. It reads almost as a thesis for the season. Burberry did not abandon its codes, it tested how far they could be disturbed before losing their identity.
Central Cee’s runway debut brought another version of British culture into the room, while Jonathan Bailey, Jorja Smith, Skepta, Gemma Chan, Iris Law, Lila Moss and Fiona Shaw were among the guests.
The most convincing idea was not reinvention for its own sake. It was allowing familiar clothes to become less precious, more personal and easier to inhabit.
Burberry’s check remained recognisable. Birtwell simply gave it permission to wander.
