Thirty-eight years after his film career began in a swaggeringly shabby coat in Withnail and I, Richard E Grant gave us another pop culture moment at the last show of London fashion week, modelling a rather smarter olive tweed number on the Burberry catwalk.
A starry line-up at Tate Britain on Monday also included White Lotus’s Jason Isaacs and Lesley Manville (Naomi Campbell was relegated to the supporting cast.) It was the heartwarming feelgood ending that a muted London fashion week badly needed.
Saltburn, the gleefully divisive 2023 film in which Grant also featured, was “what really tripped me out this season”, Burberry designer Daniel Lee said after the show. “Bohemian people who dressed in this really eccentric way for dinner and had crazy parties, the way the whole thing was super twisted.”
The museum’s vaulted galleries were dressed for the night as a grandly dissolute country home. Actor Nicholas Hoult was seated next to a knight in full armour. Authentically lumpy sofas made up a front row for Skepta, Ian Wright and Damian Lewis.
Dressing-gown coats and velvet smoking jackets in the collection tipped a hat to Grant’s Saltburn character. (The jodhpurs were perhaps a nod to that other recent hit of British class comedy, Rivals.)
Burberry fell out of the FTSE 100 last September, a galling loss of face in an industry where image is everything. A turnaround plan implemented by chief executive Joshua Schulman is pivoting Burberry away from trends and towards establishing itself as a global luxury outerwear brand, doubling down on its trench coats, check scarves and umbrellas.
The new positioning – think North Face, but for rich people – has gone down well with analysts. But while “back to basics” is a phrase that appeals to shareholders, it does not impress at fashion week. And in order to command high prices, Burberry needs status – and that means fancy catwalk shows.
Grant recently starred in one of a series of Valentine’s Day-themed Burberry short films. These mini romcoms located the brand in a Richard Curtis-esque version of Britishness. Think photogenic pastel-hued London terraces, Kate Winslet and park picnics, scruffy dogs and Shakespeare quotes. If the tone of those films was of bumbling warmth, this show was Lee’s director’s cut, a vision of Burberry more dark romance than romcom.
Lee also spoke backstage of how walks in rainy Yorkshire last autumn inspired the moody, saturated colour palette.
Burberry loves to talk about the weather for two reasons. Firstly, Burberry sells coats. Secondly, talking about the weather is part of being British, and Burberry also sells Britishness. Outerwear featured strongly on the catwalk.
A range of styles – quilted jackets, parkas and pea coats as well as trenches – spoke to a drive to reach a wider customer base. The signature check cropped up on oversized scarves and leather gloves. Both Grant and Isaacs had been given umbrellas to carry, ensuring maximum publicity for this accessory.
The luxury industry is jittery in the face of a spending slowdown and a new world order of tariffs, and the pace of designer turnover has picked up as panicked bosses, impatient to see results, burn through creative appointments at speed.
There have been persistent rumours that Lee, who joined Burberry in 2022, may be replaced this year. Asked about his future, he said he loved the job. “It’s an honour,” he said. “Things are definitely improving, I think we are in a really positive place. There is a stronger sense of togetherness in the team now.”
There are early signs that the worst of Burberry’s woes could be over. The share price has doubled since September, sales in the crucial pre-Christmas period were better than expected, and – at its current standing – Burberry would secure re-entry to the FTSE 100 during the next reshuffle in March.
Article by:Source: Jess Cartner-Morley
