During the most recent edition of Vogue Conversations, Burberry’s Daniel Lee described the process of building a collection as even more thrilling than watching it come together on the festival-shaped runways that have distinguished his tenure at the brand. “It starts with a conversation, a feeling, a reaction to something going on around us,” Lee told British Vogue, before an audience of fashion fans. “But the most enjoyable part is when the team and I let go of the overarching inspiration and connect with the clothes as objects in front of us. How do you make a dress, a shoe, or a handbag matter to people? The shows are magical moments, of course, but answering this question is the daily pleasure of this job.” That much is obvious from the polaroids Lee has shared with Vogue, documenting the seven late nights and early mornings in the run up to his autumn/winter 2025 presentation: an ode to drizzly weekends spent in the Great British shires.
“The whole idea behind the show came, initially, from London’s ‘weekend escapees’,” Lee says, less than an hour before sending Lesley Manville into a velvet brocade coat and onto a catwalk at the Tate Britain. “Those who live and work in the capital and escape to the beautiful English countryside to breathe the fresh air, take long walks and disengage.” The designer imagined the luggage these fugitives might bring with them – “outdoor coats, daywear, something for dinner” – and reproduced the weathered tapestries of historic National Trust properties on heeled pumps, trench coats and saddle bags. The result is a wardrobe for a modern breed of braced-for-anything Sloanes. “It’s very British,” Lee adds. “In the sense that the collection merges together old and stately and grand, with often faded interior fabrics, and the very new: weather-shielding fabrics and so on. The coats, by the way, are incredible.” Scroll down below for a rare glimpse into Burberry HQ, and the Bradfordian at…
