As Daniel Lee has outlined his vision for Burberry over the past two years, it’s become evident that casting is a crucial tool as he weaves his own version of the house’s famous check. This season’s stars included the iconic actors Lesley Manville of The Crown, Richard E. Grant of Spice World fame—or Saltburn, it that’s more your tune—and Jason Isaacs, perhaps most famously Lucius Malfoy, who was also on your TV last night vacationing in Thailand in this season of The White Lotus.
“The question is, why wouldn’t they be walking,” offers Lee via email about the inclusion of these beloved British screen legends. “It just felt so natural to ask such incredible and respected actors to participate,” he continues. But don’t take this as mere internet viral catnip. Though it is undeniable that clips of Grant hitting the runway together with Manville and Isaacs (who both proved their fashion chops in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris) will get some worthwhile clicks, Lee was thinking about what these actors mean as figures in the fabric of British sartorial culture. “It’s through them, and the characters they’ve portrayed in so many classic British television programs and films, that we know so much about the etiquette of dressing,” he says. “And, of course, those interiors you’ll see folded into the clothes they wear.”
Isaacs took the runway in a classic trench accessorised with a red Burberry check umbrella, ready for those infamous London rainfalls. “Burberry is sophisticated British elegance if you ask me,” the actor tells Vogue, “I feel honoured to be here.” Isaacs is a bonafide British icon, but he was nonetheless struck by Lee and his work. “I was stunned not only by how young Daniel was but his incredible attention to detail with every single one of the models and seemingly every stitch of the fabric,” he continues, “even to the extent of buttoning everybody’s coat up individually, and I think it shows”
Since his debut collection for fall 2023, Lee has made it a point to feature beloved British models on his runways. Who could forget Kit Butler in an adorable mallard crochet hat in that first show, or steamy and shirtless in the house’s would-be It-belt the season after? (That’s range!) There was also Agyness Deyn opening Lee’s third show a year ago, which also featured Lily Donaldson, Karen Elson, Lily Cole, Naomi Campbell, and Edie Campbell. “As a British brand celebrating Britishness and all that incorporates, it’s a pleasure to work with British models,” says Lee.
This season’s cast includes Kirsty Hume, Lila Moss, who will be waving the Moss flag on behalf of her mother Kate and aunt Lottie, and returning walkers Naomi Campbell, Edie Campbell, Erin O’Connor, and Karen Elson. “I’ve been walking in the Burberry show and have a relationship with the brand since the early 2000s, so it’s 25 years of history through various creative directors and designers and various incarnations of Burberry,” says Elson.“I was checking the casting board and Daniel has such an iconic British cast of women and iconic men as well,” Elson continues. “It’s very quintessentially what makes Great Britain great, but [it also has a] quirkiness to it,” she says, adding that she feels lucky to be a part of Lee’s cast, and that this is her favourite outfit she’s worn on a Burberry runway: “I feel like it’s the most quintessential Burberry look I’ve ever worn: It’s true!”
Although he of course casts globally, Lee says, “having a representation of British models chimes, somehow, with what we do. There’s something uniquely British about the way us Brits interact,” he explains, “Burberry is characterful, often irreverent, creative and cool; sometimes mischievous. And it’s especially hardworking,” declares the designer: “I guess British models, who are more like friends of the house, get that and get us.”
This story was originally published on Vogue.com.
