The tapestry-draped interiors of British country homes have inspired this season’s Burberry show set, held in London’s Tate Britain and conceived by creative director Daniel Lee and Paris-based production company Bureau Betak.
The space – which takes over the gallery’s main thoroughfare – features a carpeted runway in Lee’s bold Burberry blue, while enormous draped tapestries line the walls. Guest seating is also draped in the patterned fabric, which features bucolic scenes of nature.
First look at Burberry’s A/W 2025 show set
(Image credit: Courtesy of Burberry)
He notes that inspiration for the new collection (shown this evening as part of London Fashion Week A/W 2025) comes from the idea of the ‘weekend escape’, imagining ‘long rainy walks in the great outdoors to disconnect and day trips to grand stately homes’. ‘It’s that slightly eccentric, somewhat bohemian need to travel – weekend luggage included.’
‘Part fabulous tale, part fact’, the collection’s garments are rooted in a countryside sensibility, whereby motifs from ‘the faded interiors and fabrics found in the great country houses of England’ are transposed onto contemporary outerwear and scarves. Tapestries, wallpaper and wall hangings were all inspirations, says Lee, noting a mood at once ‘faded and noble’.
In part, the collection arose from the tropes of the British country house in television and film, which he calls a ‘potent touchstone’. As such, he chose a cast not only of models but also of actors, including Richard E Grant (Gosford Park), Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey), Jessica Madsen (Bridgerton) and Lesley Manville (The Crown).
(Image credit: Courtesy of Burberry)
The casting follows a recent all-star campaign for the British heritage house, which returned to Burberry’s roots with a story of London romances in the rain, starring Kate Winslet, Nicholas Hoult, Richard E Grant, and Jodie Turner-Smith.
‘Interplay is a great word and something we considered in the collection,’ Lee exclusively tells Wallpaper*. ‘There’s an interplay and a deliberate tension between the indoor furnishing fabrics and outdoor clothing and accessories. You’ll see velvet brocade jackets, which echo flocked wallpaper you’d see in a great country house, and pheasant prints which are intricately cut to create feathered trims and so on – all interplay, all new propositions.
‘It’s something we wanted to further explore at Tate Britain as our venue. All the cleverly hung art is involved in its own complex dialogue, its own interplay, and that speaks directly to the collection.’
(Image credit: Courtesy of Burberry)
The choice of Tate Britain was personal for the brand. Burberry’s headquarters on Horseferry Road are just a stone’s throw away from the Pimlico gallery. Meanwhile, some digging into the house’s extensive archive led to the discovery of a photograph of the ‘Radcliffe’ trench photographed outside Tate Britain in the 1970s.
It’s a venue that also cements Burberry’s link to London, which the brand says ‘remains our creative backdrop and our spiritual home’. To celebrate Britain’s rich cultural output has been a driving force of Lee’s tenure since he presented his first collection for the house in 2023. (The latest show will mark the start of a one-year partnership with Tate, supporting conservation work at Tate Britain’s Painting Conservation Studios.)
‘[I want to] show a positive side of Britain to the world,’ Lee said at the time. ‘There is great music here, great theatre, great art. That’s something I missed in recent years and that’s what I’m trying to celebrate.’
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