admin The Burberry Spring/Summer 2024 show is, unarguably, the headline act of London Fashion Week: the band in the biggest font at the very top of the billing that gets everyone whispering about “guest appearances” and to which not everyone gets a ticket. And as the crowds slowly poured into Highbury Fields—a green enclave that’s frequently the answer to the question, “If you could live anywhere in London, where would it be?”—it was easy to think this would be a continuation of last season’s showcase in the city’s southern Kennington Park.
There was the venue itself: again, a temporary marquee lined with park benches upon which sat quilted Burberry-branded water canteens. It sounds very quaint. But given the buzz around Burberry of late, it was more a Genghis Khan war tent in scale. Inside, it comfortably fit over 650 guests and a small battalion of photographers and staff, the latter of which were all dressed in zoo keeper-y fatigues of blue shirts and tan slacks. The wattage of Hollywood power was even brighter this time around, too, with an all-star British line-up: Kano, Jason Statham, Rosie Huntington-Whitely, Kylie Minogue (who has a British passport), Jodie Comer, Michael Ward, Jourdan Dunn, Naomi Campbell, Rachel Weisz, Skepta, Bukayo Saka, and Taylor Zakhar Perez (who isn’t British, but did manage to hook-up with a fictional crown prince in Red, White and Royal Blue). The anticipation was palpable for Crystal Palace and England squad midfielder Eberechi Eze. “I’m super excited and grateful (to be here) man,” he said before the show commenced. “I saw a lot of it online last year, so to be in-person to experience the atmosphere and show in real life… I’m really looking forward to it.”
Burna Boy, Kylie Minogue and Barry Keoghan front row at the Burberry Spring/Summer ’24 showDavid M. Benett/Getty Images
Given the big tent, the campfire ephemera, and creative director Daniel Lee’s fixation on Middle England’s many quirks, it felt like Burberry was zoning in on the British eccentric: Burberry as the luxury flag of a not-so-United Kingdom that’s teeming with resilient, charming weirdos and Anglo-Saxon ritual.
Not even. The Dean Blunt-produced soundtrack fired the starting pistol. A dog barked alongside the snake rattle of a spray paint can. And out stomped the first look: a trench (what else?). But unlike the house Burberry grail of the last 160 years, it was a fresh remix. The panels were deconstructed and deformed into something that felt slightly aggressive. The waist was low-slung. It was precise, and experimental, but still recognizably Burberry. A love letter to Little Britain this was not.
Instead, Lee’s 55 look-deep collection peeled away the layers. There were more trench coats as modular and militaristic as the first. But the frequency of naked flesh increased as the show went on. Unbuttoned shirts rippled above torsos on iron-jawed models. Trousers hung low like the girl bands of yore. Chain prints were repeated to laser cut-outs that acted as peepholes to naked skin below. This wasn’t the smoky ravewear on the country estate Burberry.
