Daniel Lee and Celia Birtwell made Burberry's spring collection together, scattering her florals across the check. Four in five looks wore a jacket, coat or trench, and the shoes were the surprise.
Burberry Spring 2027: I Like When Things Don't Feel Perfect
Not perfect on purpose
"I like when things don't feel perfect. I like things to feel cool, youthful." That is Daniel Lee, answering a question about the tarnish, rumple and smudge in a collection from a brand that is usually Britain's most shiny, smooth and polished.
I love that answer, and I think it is the most honest thing a luxury designer has said this season. The show was held at Chelsea College of Arts, and the coolest person in the room was an 85-year-old in the front row: the textile designer Celia Birtwell, who taught there once. It was also the runway debut of Central Cee.
Celia's flowers
The collaboration is the heart of it. Lee had never collaborated with anyone on a collection before, and he said you find it when you find it. They met in May. He reimagined the Burberry check as a trellis across which her florals flourish, and later her doodled faces become 3D badges and beaded details.
His line about her prints is that they feel the same whether you wear them today or wore them in the seventies. I agree. About a third of the looks carry a floral, and it is the print that makes the rest of the clothes feel loosened up.
Still a coat house, but looser
The brand has leaned hard on the trench for a few seasons, and this collection finally opens up. The coat is still there, with most of the looks wearing a jacket, coat or trench, but now it shows up as taffeta with puffed hems, in sunset orange, with embellishment.
Shirting and shorts are in taffeta embroidered with Birtwell florals, and denim comes in washed pink, trench taupe and black, all roughened and touched. Even the white edging on the sneaker soles is smudged. I find that so much more wearable than a coat that looks like it has never been outside.
A great shoe show
It was also, to my eye, a great shoe show. There are seventies-style strapped clogs worn under technical clothes, and modern climbing moccasins worn under chiffon gowns. That mismatch is the best thing in the collection. Lee said that when we buy a luxury product we are looking for an emotional attachment, not a necessity. A clog under a chiffon gown is exactly that. It is hard to justify and impossible to forget.
