Check mates: Can baby Beckhams and the White Lotus revive Burberry?
Seasoned celebrities, nepo babies and television royalty were as familiar as the ludicrously capacious bags at British heritage brand Burberry’s closing show at London Fashion Week.
Brooklyn Beckham, son of soccer star-turned-underwear model David and Spice Girl-turned-designer Victoria, attended with his wife Nicola Peltz, wearing the ubiquitous Burberry check.
Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz at the Burberry winter 2025 show at the Tate Britain.Credit: Dave Benett
It’s not the first time Brooklyn’s association with the brand has drawn attention. In 2016, at the age of 16, he was invited to photograph a Burberry advertising campaign, attracting accusations of nepotism.
The B-list Beckhams shared the front row at the Tate Britain with steely Vogue editor Anna Wintour, seated beside an armoured figure representing the Burberry logo. Wintour must have been grateful it wasn’t a Ralph Lauren show, or she might have been beside a horse as she watched Jason Isaacs from The White Lotus, Lesley Manville from The Crown and Richard E. Grant take to the runway in heavy coats.
“It’s through incredible actors, and the films and TV they’ve appeared in, that we learn so
much about the rules of dressing up,” Burberry’s creative director Daniel Lee said in the show notes. The designer had initially been inspired by the country house setting of the movie Saltburn.
Stunt casting is also a strategy for struggling brands to get attention. In July, former Coach and Michael Kors chief executive Joshua Schulman was brought in to run Burberry, months before it fell out of the FTSE 100 and posted an operating loss of £41 million ($81 million) for the first half of the year.
Schulman’s appointment followed seasons of Burberry trying to regain the popularity it enjoyed under creative director Christopher Bailey from 2004 to 2018, when the bold check became the uniform of the British chav and a host of actors, such as Eddie Redmayne and Emma Watson, appearing in advertising campaigns by respected photographers.
Following Bailey’s departure Riccardo Tisci was brought in from Givenchy, where it was hoped he would replicate his success at the French luxury label with a darker, more street-inspired aesthetic.
