LONDON — The air in the big black tent in the middle of Kennington Park, South London, was thick with expectations. They oozed around the benches, covered in plaid blankets, that snaked through the space; bathed the guests in a nervous glow as they clutched the hot water bottles left on each seat. Even the hot toddies being handed out in metal mugs seemed to bubble in anticipation. The Big Burberry Reset under the brand’s new designer Daniel Lee was about to begin.
What’s the big deal? you shrug. Brands seem to get new designers practically every other year these days. Why does this one matter so much?
Because Burberry was never just a brand. It was a multibillion pound public company and an unofficial cultural ambassador; the rare fashion label that had colonized a chunk of the global consumer imagination, where it stood not just for a certain kind of style but a certain kind of Britishness: one that could be seeded across borders even as the empire itself shrank.
Made modern by the designer Christopher Bailey, who turned Burberry into a fashion phenomenon of the first decade of the 21st century before stepping down in 2018, it became a source of national pride and identity, one rooted in explorers, heroism and royal warrants; in the trenches and trench coats. (As it happened, Mr. Bailey was in the audience this time around — he had been advising Mr. Lee a little and, he said, “I just want it to be brilliant.”)
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