Burberry’s Green Thing

This season, models sporting deconstructed Burberry trench coats, trousers cinched at the ankle, and leathers printed with a muted version of the house’s signature check floated through London’s National Theatre against the backdrop of an enormous, emerald green installation designed by artist Gary Hume. Four years ago, Riccardo Tisci invited Anne Imhof to create an artist-designed runway with him for the first time for Burberry. For the house’s Spring/Summer 2025 show, now- Chief Creative Officer Daniel Lee brought art to the runways once more for his second year leading the house.

Burberry-clad models floated in, around, and through the water-resistant sheets with geometric cut-outs that hung from the ceiling. The frayed edges of Hume’s green tarps framed the looks as they moved by and complimented the collection’s soft, cool color palette. This scene recalled Hume’s life-sized, abstract door paintings of his late 1980s and ‘90s work, which render doors of hospital waiting rooms with a glossy sheen. Hume, one of Britain’s leading painters and sculptors and an elected Royal Academician, emerged with the punky Young British Artists movement in the early ‘90s. Since then, he has built a name for himself with his abstract, figurative works that depict everyday items, people, and scenes. The artist based his Burberry installation on Bays, 1990, an earlier installation made of industrial tarpaulin meant to cover equipment on docks that was first featured in London’s splashy East Country Yard Show the year it was made.

This week's runway show marks the latest project displaying Burberry’s commitment to British artists, including Timo Helgert, Sasha Kats, and Sarah Lucas. Last year, the heritage brand partnered with the Tate Britain to present a major exhibition of Lucas’ work titled “Happy Gas” that spanned four decades with over 75 works. Lucas, a fellow member of the Young British Artists movement with Hume, co-curated the show that originally featured his Bays.