The Prorsum knight is charging off at a gallop at Burberry with Daniel Lee at the reins. You cannot have missed the English chevalier, caught in an almost stencil-like graphic silhouette, boldly and freshly re-painted in that already crazily-recognizable new shade of blue.
Everything about that choice speaks volumes about the nature of Lee’s decisive talent for planting what he calls ‘signifiers.’ He’s making them live in all sorts of catchy, subliminal, and witty ways across the brand. “You know, for me, creativity can be so many things. It can obviously be about a kind of crazy silhouette, but it can also be about the tiny little details,” he said, talking at Burberry HQ. “The great thing about coming to a brand that’s been around since 1853 is there are so many codes you can work into. Like the Prorsum knight. There was a really beautiful iteration of it from the 1980s in the archive. That was the one that really jumped out,” he grinned. “And it was royal blue.”
The launch of his second collection provided a rare chance to hear more about
everything that’s going on from (as it were) the horse’s mouth. Lee’s youthful handle on
Britishness is mediated by long experience in luxury European houses—Bottega Veneta, Celine with Phoebe Philo, and before that, a stint with Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga. He’s a graduate of Central Saint Martins and some of his friends from that time are in the studio. At break-neck speed, the proposition he’s bringing to Burberry is
coalescing into something that’s both playful and rigorously thought-out, top-to-toe.
First off: his morphing of Prince of Wales check into something sophisticated but just a little weird: traditional at the top, but warping downwards into digital-age waves. Below that, tights that take up the same pattern. And on the feet, a slew of the kind of footwear that engendered fanatical enthusiasm from Lee’s followers at Bottega. Frilly lurex sandals. Blanket-fringed pointy heels peeping out from beneath trousers. Plaid-printed wellies and chunky loafers with punky barbed-wire hardware instead of horse bits.
Lee talked about establishing “an outdoor and outerwear” feel for this collection. That’s
Burberry-central, of course—windswept moors, rain coats, quilted jackets, and all that. Playing around with Burberry checks comes with the territory. The landscape and culture are first nature to this Yorkshire-born designer, meaning he’s no need to ladle on the references with a heavy hand. One of his English country-walk tropes turned into a delightful lattice-work of yellow dandelion flowers printed on dresses in a pattern mimicking a traditional argyle.
Beneath all of this, though, Lee is building Burberry as an accessory magnet. Back to his ‘signifiers’: He’s translated the medieval armor of the Prorsum knight into all sorts of minimized detail on hardware and jewelry. The buckle on a bag strap “is a cross between a carabiner and a horse’s head.” There are earrings shaped like spears and helmets, and a leather tote in the shape of a shield. On some of the bags there are little metal bells. Lee said that one’s a nod to the fact that Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament are just down the road. Come September, there will certainly be vastly more international attention on what Burberry shows on the runway. As of now, though, this collection is a clear signposting of his direction of travel.
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