Central Cee made his runway debut at Burberry SS27 Womenswear

After last season’s ode to the Great British night out, Burberry creative director Daniel Lee decided to take things firmly in the opposite direction, get his head in some books and head back to school. For SS27, London’s Chelsea College of Arts was home to Burberry’s latest runway, an art school that’s seen the likes of Steve McQueen, Anish Kapoor and Chris Ofili walk its halls. Now, on the final evening of London Fashion Week SS27, Burberry returned to Chelsea for the fourth time, bringing with it a new cast of famous Brits to walk the campus grounds. For everything you missed from the LFW closer, scroll down for more.

Burberry is the best that Britain has to offer, and its front row always has to reflect that. So, watching on from the benches this season were Skepta, Jorja Smith, Jonathan Bailey, tennis star Jack Draper, England defender Djed Spence, Lila Moss, Romeo Beckham, Jason Statham and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Joining the cast of A-list Brits were some international stars, like Tems, actors Rachel Brosnahan and Kieron Moore, plus TikTok tradwife Nara Smith.

For Lee, SS27 was somewhat of a reset. “Burberry at its most soulful” was the directive in this season’s show notes – “a return to the basis of things”, as Lee put it himself. Nylon trench coats with puffball hems arrived first, followed by leather coats with appliqué details, leather shorts in mocha and steel, plus micro florals dotted over shirts and coats. Some jumpers were memorable for their trompe-l’œil epaulettes, large and cartoonish on models’ shoulders, while nylon bakerboy caps transformed them into modern-day chimney sweeps.

Another standout from the collection came in the form of a salmon-coloured leather trench coat decorated with blueberry-like beading – but the most eye-catching moments came from a collaboration with Celia Birtwell, the octogenarian textile artist who helped define British fashion in the 60s and 70s.

For Burberry SS27, Birtwell created original designs for the collection. A leather coat was covered in green, orange and white face motifs, like little proto-emojis in various states of expression. That motif was then carried over as a print on shirts and jumpers, while Birtwell’s take on the house Nova Check was closer to that of a cute picnic gingham.

We’ve almost come to expect catwalk cameos from Burberry by now. In recent years, we’ve seen the likes of Richard E. Grant, Jason Isaacs, Lesley Manville and Elizabeth McGovern make their runway debuts, but this season it was the turn of Central Cee. It’s been a busy fashion week for the rapper, who showed up to support Traiceline Pratt’s GOYAGOMA earlier in the week, sitting front row at Fashion East. At Burberry, Cench wore a hooded anorak while clinging to his jeans, which drooped so low that they revealed a pair of Burberry check boxers. 

Every season, Lee chooses one artist and takes us on a deep dive of their discography. Last season, it was all about FKA Twigs. The season before, he paid tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne with a soundtrack from Black Sabbath, while today’s show was all about David Bowie – although only the megafans would know it. The show opened with a deep cut, Bowie’s instrumental “Abdulmajid”, which became “Weeping Wall” and then “Subterraneans”. Famously, “Heroes” is one of the most commonly used finale songs in fashion, but there wasn’t a whisper of it on this soundtrack. Instead, the show closed with Bowie’s 1980 track “Ashes to Ashes”.