Burberry’s Winter 25 campaign – A Grand Escape – extends Daniel Lee’s vision beyond the runway, blending British heritage with humour and a sense of countryside escape
BurberryA stately home in Norfolk, a walk in the rain, and ducks perched on a staircase. For its latest campaign, Burberry has decamped to Wolterton Hall – Thomas Ripley’s Palladian estate that has long stood as a symbol of English heritage – to stage its newest chapter. Photographed by Sam Rock, the campaign takes Daniel Lee’s Winter 2025 show off the runway and into the landscape, extending its narrative of Britishness, history and imagination beyond the walls of the Tate Britain where the collection was first unveiled.
Wolterton Hall is no arbitrary choice. Like Burberry itself, the 17th-century estate is both anchored in tradition and open to reinvention. Its grandeur, from manicured grounds to gilded interiors, carries the weight of heritage, but here it is animated by a cast of household names and fresh faces. Rupert Everett, Jeny Howorth and Luther Ford appear alongside Lina Zhang, Assa Baradji, Tristan Watkins, Leon Keenan and Iris Lasnet, inhabiting the house and gardens like a band of mischievous weekend guests. In Lee’s story, the English settings are as much participants as they are stages; heritage carries more vitality when it’s lived in rather than sealed away.
The campaign extends the narrative first set out at the Winter 25 runway show at Tate Britain, where Lee explored tropes of Britishness through tapestries and a cast of actors and models (plus a surprise knight in shining armour on the front row). On the runway, the atmosphere was ceremonial. At Wolterton Hall, it becomes cinematic – a series of vignettes that feel like a country-house drama playing out in real time. Lee himself has described the project as a way of bringing the collection’s fabrics and interiors to life, and that sense of tactility comes through in every frame.
The looks underline Burberry’s dual identity: functional and theatrical, rooted in heritage but distinctly contemporary. A fringed purple trench coat swings and sways with drama, paired with knee-high boots and staged alongside a gaggle of ducks. A velvet suit in deep green feels rich and storied, recalling upholstery fabrics but transformed into sharp tailoring that commands attention. Elsewhere, tartan skirts layered over trousers with robust knitwear capture the countryside mood with a boldness that feels modern. In a gilded interior, a robe-like navy coat is worn with the ease of loungewear, an indulgent take on Burberry’s enduring outerwear tradition.
Evening looks push toward the romantic – damask velvet dresses, gathered shapes, prints that mimic feathers – while accessories ground the fantasy. New leather bags borrow curves from saddlery and weathered checks from the Highlands. Boots echo cavalier shapes in embossed leather, while slipper-like shoes in quilted velvet wink at aristocratic ease. Elsewhere, the familiar Burberry check finds its way into fresh forms, from boxy B Clip styles to bowling bags perched, with a knowing wink, atop carved ducks and mantelpieces.
Sam Rock captures that playful spirit with a steady hand. Outdoors, his subjects stride through drizzle, checks flapping like banners in the wind; indoors, they sprawl beneath plasterwork and gilt-framed portraits as if the estate belongs to them. The pendulum swing between mud and marble, rain and chandeliers, is precisely Burberry’s own.
That may be the most telling part of Lee’s project: an unabashed embrace of British clichés, recast with humour and charm. Winter skies are grey, aristocrats once roamed houses like Wolterton, and Burberry has always excelled at coats. None of this is new. But in Burberry’s latest images, these old truths are given fresh energy – imbued with optimism, a wink of theatricality and a self-awareness that keeps heritage light on its feet. At Wolteron Hall, history isn’t heavy. It’s having a good time. And so, apparently, is Burberry.
