He’s from up north. Bradford. Yorkshire. Hockney country. And so Daniel Lee knows the value of a hot water bottle and a good wool blanket - provided for all of us. Lee’s debut as Chief Creative Officer at the most British of brands, Burberry happened in Kennington Park south London, 8pm, in a darkly cosy marquee. This was the hot ticket of London Fashion Week. We had already been given a taste of what Lee might do in early February with the release of his first ad campaign including British icons – buildings and people. It also revealed the new electric blue version of the classic equestrian knight in Burberry livery, with B shield, galloping, flag flying emblazoned with ‘prorsum’ meaning forward. The Burberry typeface too replaced with a finer version  - also in electric blue.

And so the collection, a mix of womenswear and menswear unfurled with a slew of cobalt blue checks and a solitary ‘prorsum’ white satin dress fluttering in the darkness; trapper hats too;  check/tartan - a bit punk with kilts over trousers; Aran and argyle jumpers; molded rubber gum boots; oversize slouchy pants and car coats; purple and black checks; sweeping 30s dark gowns as if made from masses of petals perhaps; an English rose adorned t-shirts; loads of faux fur bits and pieces and coats reassuringly like dressing gowns too. The accessories were strong as would be expected from Lee (track record previously at Bottega Veneta of course) with an elegant ‘b’ curling on the satchels and saddle bags; a silvery chunky bejewelled bag was brilliantly gnarly and pure Lee DNA texture. The shoes were expectedly quirky like Tate Modern talking points all square frame toes in shearling and faux fur.

It felt youthful, tinged with teenage rebellion/angst, bags of British spirit here, with more street vocabulary than posh prorsum. Layered.  Lots to be unpacked.

As we headed out into the pitch black park, surrounded by people with armfuls of blankets, in what was a seasoned/shameless post show smash and grab, Anna Wintour and Baz Lurhmann exited flanked by Christopher Bailey, the other Yorkshireman who was the creative lead at Burberry for 17 years. He is good friends with Lee and it is rumoured has been a sounding board. We know Lee can catapult a brand into the fashion stratosphere and with this dark Englishness energy maybe the b tonight also stood for brave beginning.

We are  going home to place the stylus very gently onto “Where the Wild Roses Grow”…

burberry.com