A utilitarian romance: Lee, Birtwell and Burberry
Daniel Lee invited Celia Birtwell in on his spring/summer 2027 collection for Burberry, creating a romantic expression filtered through utilitarian cool. Anders Christian Madsen reviews the show.
Celia Birtwell graced the front row of the Burberry show on Monday evening, staged in a bright, white structure by Chelsea College of Art. “She’s the epitome of British fashion. Those prints are incredible. They feel timeless, whether you wear them today or you wore them in the ’70s,” Daniel Lee said after the show. He met the British textile designer – whose romantic prints became synonymous with her husband Ossie Clark’s fashion in the 1960s and ’70s – in May. Lee loved her energy and asked her to collaborate on the collection. Birtwell started by tackling the house check, reworking it into a gingham that felt her own. From there, the process expanded into florals, stripes and funny face motifs brought to life in jacquards, embroideries and surface decoration.
The collaboration inspired Lee’s most romantic collection to date. “I wanted to be respectful to the femininity, to the lightness: those beautiful light, transparent chiffon dresses of Ossie, I wanted to reinterpret that for now in a way that made sense to us,” he said, referring to the fluid, sensual, bohemian dresses that defined Clark’s practice. Between the sweet, fresh colours, dress-like trench coats and pretty florals that embodied much of the collection, you were, at times, almost transported back to the Burberry of Christopher Bailey. But Lee hadn’t gone entirely soft on us. As the show progressed, some more subversive British character started entering the picture: street-smart tough guys in utility-wear and hints of military surplus, Central Cee walking among them like a local town hero.
I wanted to be respectful to the femininity, to the lightness: those beautiful light, transparent chiffon dresses of Ossie, I wanted to reinterpret that for now in a way that made sense to us.
DANIEL LEE
“We’re ultimately a brand of utility, but the majority of the collection was made in silk taffeta,” Lee said, explaining how he’d bridged his utility, sports and performance-wear with the romance of Birtwell’s prints. “I wanted to kind of make as much as possible out of one fabric because it felt very similar to the fabrics that Ossie was using. cutting trench coats and outerwear and rainwear in this beautiful lightweight taffeta. I felt it just gave everything a really different spin to anything that I’ve ever done before; that, I think, people expect from the brand.” Three years into his tenure at Burberry, Lee isn’t just finding the balance between fancy and functional – cutting-edge and commercial – but also between the many sensibilities and anthropologies that embody Englishness.
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