As reported last month, Burberry is changing up its pre-collection format, with Riccardo Tisci introducing a new collaborator each season in a new series called “Friends and Family.”
Lea T, a pal of Tisci’s who has featured as a model in Burberry campaigns and who walked the spring 2021 runway show, kicks off the series, working with Tisci on a collection with nature, and exploration, at its heart.
Tisci described Lea T as “someone who is able to balance fierce femininity and an effortlessly gentle romantic softness,” and said he chose her because of her connection to animals and nature.
Both play a big role: One model had a ferret crawling over his shoulder, while another cradled the animal in her arm. Others are photographed carrying potted plants, or bags printed with greenery.
The oversize, languid looks have an outdoorsy feel, as if the British Scouts had handed over their uniforms to Burberry’s design team. There are lots of cargo pants, technical hiking jackets with outside zip pockets, oversize turtleneck ponchos, rain gear and rugged, rubber-soled hiking style boots boasting a tangle of colored laces.
In that vein of exploration, there were silk twill short-sleeve shirts, sturdy, pleated wool skirts and T-shirts featuring the British Isles, mirrored globe, and Burberry monogram map prints.
The offer didn’t end there: Alongside those Burberry adventurers was a band of hippies, in knitted miniskirts, shaggy faux fur coats, wide-legged corduroy trousers and flat sandals — all designed for a frolic in the great outdoors, or even just the back garden.
Tisci has described this new series as “a celebration of identity, style and family,” adding that each season he would choose “someone special to me, who inspires me, and whose unique creativity surrounds me in my personal life.”
He plans to ask each creative partner to interpret the Burberry identity he has created since he joined the house in 2018.
