Daniel Lee has been in his new job as creative director at Burberry for about five minutes and I’m already in love. “Injecting life” is an understatement for what Lee has done with the brand — this is an IV drip of pure adrenaline into the veins of classic British style.
Lee drew on his prolific portfolio as an accessory guru to deliver a menagerie of bags that are sure to fly into the arms of Burberry connoisseurs. As Hypebeast noted, “[Burberry] has needed an “it” bag that the glitterati will clamber for, and Lee delivered several to choose from.”
The design. The colors. The forms. This is eye-catching art as vivid as a spectrum, emanating from the prism that is the mind of Daniel Lee. Business of Fashion and Vogue both brought attention to Lee’s record at Bottega Veneta, having “turned [it] around with a stark, confrontational aesthetic” (BoF), but this Burberry revival is on a different scale in my opinion. Lee has taken Burberry from “classic with a twist of Minecraft” into a brand ready for the 22nd century. Like Highsnobiety said, Burberry is back. In a big way.
Which is why this quote raises such a red flag.
Burberry’s rallying cry, per BoF, is “dialing up on Britishness“. What does that mean?
Lee insisted that he wanted his Burberry to celebrate everything great about his Britain: its Westwood-ian creativity, its diversity. His T-shirts spoke of “Winds of Change.” Change for him, change for the brand.
Business of Fashion
I do get it — as Vogue said back in December, Lee’s being British was the buzz of Burberry in the UK, and this undoubtedly led to a sort of patriotism surrounding the nearly 200-year-old brand.
“Burberry flies the flag for Britishness and for the UK and for culture. So, we have to use our platforms because we have a responsibility to communicate those things…I don’t know if this is the right way to say this, but more than surprising people, I really would like them to see the new vision and feel reassured – like, ‘Oh, yeah, this makes sense: This is what Burberry should be.’”
British Vogue, quoting Vogue Runway
“Flying the flag for Britishness”, “flying the flag for culture” — equating the two — this just reflexively makes me think of a bad part of human history.
I love that Lee makes it clear right off the top that his Britain is diverse and that said diversity is to be celebrated; I feel that he is going to have to keep this message front and center to keep Burberry from being associated with exclusivity or nationalism, G-d forbid. The last thing that Lee needs to have this revitalized art powerhouse of Burberry to be tainted by bigotry.
But Lee also has another task at hand — upholding Burberry’s latest humanitarian endeavors.
For instance, Burberry, for its Autumn/Winter 2022 campaign, featured the Compton Cowboys, “the Los-Angeles based nonprofit organization responsible for reviving Black cowboy culture for a younger generation, to model its reimagined pieces.” This was under Burberry’s previous creative director Riccardo Tisci.
I hope we continue to see such nods to “Black cowboy culture revival”, “uplifting Black communities” and other pro-Black causes under Daniel Lee. Burberry can do a lot of good with its brand and with its brand presence.
In a modern reinterpretation of Burberry’s Equestrian Knight Design – a symbol of our community spirit that was crowdsourced around 1901 – the campaign features members of the Compton Cowboys, a black-owned LA-based non-profit organisation.
Burberry will support their efforts in uplifting local African American communities by combatting stereotypes and building skills through connections to the outdoors.
Burberry Fall/Winter 2022 website‘
That was six months ago. Daniel Lee has big shoes to fill in the eyes of many “cowboys” in the hood in Southern California. It can’t just be about style and design, it can’t just be about corporate bottom lines. Burberry has created a new legacy, one that deserves to stay alive in its own right.
For the sake of all the good that has already been done, it can’t just be about celebrating British diversity anymore.
Long live Burberry. And may Daniel Lee see nothing but success.
