“My social life is viewing the match on television; it’s a bit unfortunate, isn’t it?” Lee states in a soft voice accentuated by dry humor. “I enjoy all sport– Wimbledon’s terrific– however I choose the energy of a football match to a tennis match. Tennis is really respectful. Individuals lose themselves at football– it’s like a cult, isn’t it?” I didn’t have Lee down as a sports fanatic, however he appears to revere footballers as much as the similarity Skepta and Olivia Colman, whom he likes working together with. (Lee supports Arsenal.) There’s likewise his day-to-day 8 a.m. health club sessions before work. “The bench press is great, due to the fact that you can simply lie there,” he states, chuckling. “I do not like cardio any longer– it harms my knees.”
From left: Edie Campbell uses silk poplin raincoat and sequined georgette gown. Alva Claire uses map-print nylon sateen raincoat.
Lee, 40, informs me this as we being in his garden, the very first of our a number of conferences. Face to face, Lee is honest, amusing, and thoughtful.” Daniel values authenticity– and openness,” states Skepta. “And he has the very best eye. I ‘d practically use whatever he makes.”
Designated Burberry’s primary innovative officer in 2022, Lee has actually taken the 170-year-old British brand name from his extremely conceptual launching, all electric-blue blanket checks and graphic red-rose prints, to his more current collections, extensively applauded as much for their cool, thought about performance when it comes to the cut and thrust of their forward instructions. (Lee has actually likewise seen the brand name reach pretax revenues of over $65 million in 2026, up from a nearly $88 million loss in 2015.) He concerned Burberry after 3 years at Bottega Veneta– an age that flared like a firework thanks to the success of the Cassette bag and Lido shoes, with Lee giving up before the trigger extinguished itself. Before that: 6 years with Phoebe Philo at Celine, ultimately becoming her style director; and before that Donna Karan in New York, following internships at Maison Margiela and Nicolas Ghesquière– period Balenciaga after his graduation from Central Saint Martins.
While the CV checks out like a conceptualist designer’s dream, Lee’s Burberry function might be the most reflective of who he truly is: practical, plain, driven by a sense of function. For his pal Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who has actually understood him considering that Bottega Veneta, Lee the individual and the designer are one and the very same. “The factor I feel so at ease in Daniel’s business is that he is grounded and down-to-earth,” she states. “He has this unbelievable skill and work principles, yet there’s no pretense with him, no drama.”
From left: Romeo Beckham uses silk t-shirt, silk headscarf, leather pants, belt, and bicycle rider boots. Simone Ashley uses decorated satin gown, leather shoes, and frame bag. Paapa Essiedu uses nylon sateen raincoat, silk t-shirt, wool pants, and leather shoes.
When he began at Burberry, Lee states,” it took me a minute to change. What I performed in the past had to do with the dream, and it was the devices that were the focus. The clothing here are still the dream, yet they’re wearable and beneficial, not simply for a program. Creating Burberry makes you concern and think about whatever.” He sees himself as “a making designer,” he states. “I delight in remaining in the minute and dealing with impulse, with craft, with my hands– the physicality of that.”
Lee’s love of making originates from his household– his daddy Ian and mom Jenny, his bro Richard and sister Sophie. (Daniel is the oldest.) Ian was a mechanic before he retired, and he now resides in Lee’s Yorkshire home, which is not far from Bradford, where Lee was born and raised. He’s established a workshop at the back of your house to remodel bikes, a long-lasting enthusiasm, which thrills his kid to no end– when he and his bro were kids, they would ride the bikes in a field at the back of their home. His mommy was the innovative one. “She was constantly making– stitching drapes and baking expensive birthday cakes; she made a Noah’s ark for us, and she even made my auntie, who had a cleansing organization, a vacuum,” Lee states. “It made me believe, I simply desire a task where I can make things.”
Simone uses leather t-shirt, pleated leather skirt, boots, and bag.
His auntie Debbie, his mommy’s sibling, has actually moved next door to the 1680s home. It was Debbie who brought Lee to London for the very first time when he was 12– they saw the London Eye, took in The Lion King, and consumed at the then hip dining establishment Sketch.” My auntie was being fashionable, “Lee states, chuckling passionately.” She likewise took me to Harvey Nichols in Leeds. I wasn’t a kid maturing checking out Style, Looking at the fantastic windows at Harvey Nichols and seeing the clothing– that’s when I began to believe about style.” His grandparents would take him to the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford to see the similarity Chicago (his grandma’s preferred), which sparked a long-lasting love of theater. (On a current journey to New York, he captured the much-lauded revival of The Rocky Horror Show.
Paapa uses embroidered sateen parka.
While Lee’s household has actually constantly attended his Burberry runway reveals, in the weeks and months after his mommy’s death, the nearness deepened. His granny concerned the program in February 2025 with a picture of Lee’s mommy in her purse, and it was she who sat with him the night before the discussion as he dealt with the last of the fittings. His sibling, on the other hand, used the Burberry trench that had actually been their mama’s. “She used it to my very first program,” Lee remembers.
“One thing about Daniel is that he has actually always remembered his roots,” states Lee’s daddy, “and I believe that’s why Yorkshire will constantly seem like home to him.” That sensation of reconnection is something to which Lee has actually provided a great deal of idea. “That’s the genuine worth of the North,” he states. “It provides you a sense of shared ownership of the tough times, that makes things much easier.”
Burberry’s head offices are on Horseferry Road in London, strolling range from both Buckingham Palace and Tate Britain. Lee’s workplace and studio are on the seventh flooring. He develops Tuesday to Thursday, scheduling Monday and Friday for prep days– so the group, he states, can have their weekends without work. Lee likes to be effective– the late Virgil Abloh informed him that innovative directors should not lose their time emailing, so he does not: He and his group speak continuously through WhatsApp rather.
Romeo uses wool coat.
In one corner of the huge workroom, Burberry archivist Carly Eck has actually put together a rail of pieces drawn from the 25,000 that the business holds– consisting of the earliest trench, dating from 1917– with an eye to what Lee has actually reacted to: the 1930s Highlander cape, with straps to permit flexibility of motion; a car total that Lee riffed on for his fall 2024 collection; and a coat used by explorer Ernest Shackleton, which Lee likewise referenced in 2023. Eck and Lee get together at the start of every season to assist construct stories linking Burberry past and present. Lee’s extreme interest has actually definitely paid unforeseen dividends. The unbelievably adorable duck hats that he consisted of in his Burberry launching were motivated by illustrations in among the brand name’s brochures circa 1930s, set out on a table close by.
“What we do,” Lee states,” is attempt to supply individuals with responses about how to live the very best possible method. We make clothing to secure individuals, to make them feel great, all set, advanced. I believe the style is secondary. The style here begins with a location of energy, performance, functionality– it needs to work before it needs to be, let’s state, ornamental.” His Burberry collections so far have actually otherwise used blanket-lined parkas, battalion coats, long kilts, jaunty capelets, and dandyish suiting; what design and equestrian Edie Campbell, who has actually dealt with Burberry considering that she was 15 (” I still had braces!”), calls “extremely wearable, however with an edge. It’s happy, and there’s a lightness and a playfulness to it.” Devices– the ka-ching! Successes for any style brand name– are on his mind, even if a star hasn’t rather emerged.
If the past is in the space, so is the future. Burberry’s spring 2027 collection, which he displayed in September at Chelsea College of Arts– Jodie Turner-Smith, Jonathan Bailey, and Fiona Shaw on the front row; Central Cee on the catwalk– functions trenches both diaphanous and engraved with embroidery, in addition to rendered in leather that’s been extravagantly traced with beading; practical cotton drill combined with sequins; flower blousons and skirts used with earthy, low-heeled buckled mules; and jewel-like high slingback shoes made a little less valuable by being coupled with slouchy socks. Something constantly on Lee’s mind: making Burberry speak more to females. “The brand name is substantiated of menswear, and the trenches are an extremely manly thing,” he states. “We’re constantly attempting to bring more womanhood to it.”
Edie uses silk poplin coat with shearling trim, sequined jersey gown, and leather shoes.
Color is one method into that, and it’s something that Lee has actually decisively given the brand name from the extremely starting with what he refers to as softer, moorland tones; spring 2027, on the other hand, sings with tones of dusky pink, aubergine, duck-egg blue, and a soft-sunny yellow, showing the casual, lived-in feel that he wished to impart on the clothing. Gary Hume, the painter, remembers conference Lee when they started dealing with a Burberry job in 2024. Walking Hume’s studio, they ‘d touch the art, communicating it. Having actually now dealt with Lee, the artist feels that the designer’s usage of color “does not seem like it’s included on– it’s completely important to what Daniel does.”
For spring 2027, Lee likewise dealt with the well known octogenarian print designer Celia Birtwell, an intrinsic part of the imaginative surge in British art and style in the 1960s, together with her other half, designer Ossie Clark, and David Hockney, her buddy. Lee had actually visited the current Hockney exhibit at the Serpentine Galleries in London– he feels a strong affinity with the Bradford-born artist, who passed away in June– and a gingham table linen that Hockney utilized as a leitmotif triggered a concept to team up with Birtwell, who developed a talk to a painterly feel to it and some rather captivating vintage-wallpaper flower prints. They feel natural and fresh, a million miles far from CAD– or AI. “Celia brings a human hand, a psychological hand, to something,” Lee states, delighted by what she has actually done. “We have an unbelievable archive, however often it’s interesting to see brand-new things.”
From left: Alva uses mohair/silk shawl coat and chevron-knit gown. Romeo uses leather coat with shearling collar, silk t-shirt, gathered denims, and belt.
Pride in Britishness is, after all, intrinsic to Burberry. “It means heritage and culture, and all the important things and all individuals that those mean,” states design Alva Claire, and Lee seconds the idea. “We are the most well-known British high-end brand name,” he states, “however in a manner we’re larger than style: We are a British organization. We’re there to commemorate the very best of Britain– fantastic imagination and likewise terrific areas.” Lee states how a lot of his Burberry shoots have actually been intentionally situated beyond London– Skye, Somerset, Norfolk, the Lake District– and he easily concurs (while acknowledging the value of London Fashion Week to Burberry) that it would be excellent to reveal elsewhere in the UK. Where? “Chanel did Manchester …,” I state; “Dior did Scotland,” he includes.
Lee on the winding, patched streets of Haworth, in West Yorkshire.
Anybody would be asking themselves what’s delegated do– and for Lee, there’s plenty. Top of mind for him, expertly, is changing the brand name’s retail environments for its 413 stations around the globe. Personally? Well, he would not mind, eventually in his life, residing in a hot nation. He’s not in any rush. He desires development to be determined and significant; to take it in stride. “I imply,” he states, smiling, “I truly feel rather content.”
In this story: Hair, Mari Ohashi; makeup, Siobhan Furlong; grooming, Quelle Bester; manicurist, Robbie Tomkins; tailor, Della George.
Produced by Tiagi. Set Design: Grace Snellock.
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