Before yesterday, Burberry might not have been anyone’s first choice for a wild night out on London streets. After all, the brand has spent years defining a very particular set of style codes, and trench coats with checkered scarves do not a club outfit make. On the final night of London Fashion Week, though, Burberry creative director Daniel Lee staged a subversion of sorts, bringing 170 years of elevated British style all the way down to street level in a sleek, gritty new Fall/Winter 2026 collection.
The show was a typically star-studded affair, boasting a blend of British and Asian stars lighting up the front row. Pop it-girl of the moment Olivia Dean made an appearance, as did K-pop star Seungmin of Stray Kids, both dressed chicly, but appropriately for the biting London wind. Staged inside the Old Billingsgate building in a set dressed with scaffolding and street lamps, the show was set to be an electric celebration of London’s street life.
Of the characters that made up the season’s inspiration, Lee said: “Everyone’s going somewhere. Everyone’s going out.” And they were certainly dressed for it—the looks were a masterclass in sleek, elevated nightlife style. The palette was cold and edgy, blending heather-grey leather and midnight-blue silk, with camel-coloured fur adding the odd pop of warmth. Leather appeared in a multitude of textures, in snakeskin-like cropped jackets and buttery-soft skirts and trousers. The unfussy silhouettes and languid cuts meant the looks could easily go from night to day.
Familiar silhouettes were given a jolt of youthful energy with inventive styling. It wouldn’t be Burberry without a little commotion for the coats, but these weren’t the buttoned-up variety. Instead, they were cinched nonchalantly at the waist with leather tie belts or left open around sleek evening gowns, in a nod to “the ease with which Londoners put on an outfit”. As such, the styling took centre stage, giving us not only a whole new shopping list, but also a Pinterest board full of ways to wear it.
It was an approach seen earlier this month at Ralph Lauren’s New York Fashion Week show, where statement pieces weren’t presented singularly, but instead transformed by impeccable styling. Notably, it hints at a secret weapon wielded by heritage brands in the race to capture the youth. After spending decades mastering the style codes of the nations they respectively call home, houses like Burberry and Ralph Lauren understand them on an instinctive level—enough to dictate not only the standout pieces for the upcoming season, but also how they’ll be worn. They might occasionally be outpaced by younger, fresher voices, but fashion’s heavyweights have a way of coming out on top.
Below, get a closer look at the standout moments from Daniel Lee’s Fall/Winter 2026 collection for Burberry.
This story first appeared on GRAZIA Singapore.
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