Can a hot-water bottle be fashionable? That question was answered with a resounding Yes last night when Daniel Lee gave his much-anticipated debut at Burberry. Lee has risen from the obscurity of design studios to become the most influential fashion designer of his generation (under 40) by making Bottega Veneta the most pioneering brand. For Bottega Veneta, he held his shows in Berlin’s techno hub Berghain, or in the motor city of Detroit, and they stood out for their dedication to product design: his bags, shoes, sunglasses and even the green color scheme were all absolute bestsellers around the world. After his departure, there was long speculation as to where he would end up next. The English Burberry CEO Jonathan Akeroyd, who succeeded the Italian Marco Gobbetti, let the Italian designer Riccardo Tisci go and brought in the English worker’s son Lee. So, Brit is back at Burberry.

Which brings us back to the hot-water bottle. Lee’s first collection was primarily a re-establishment of the brand’s historic connection to the outdoors, lost in the Tisci years who unsuccessfully tried to replace those roots with a gothic sensuality. Lee set up a large tent in Kennington Park, inspired by Burberry styles from the late 19th and early 20th centuries to allude to coziness and protection from the elements. Which is what Burberry is about, with the raincoat bringing the company nearly £3 billion in annual sales.

The collection?

Lee had his first model emerge in an oversized trench coat with a faux fur-trimmed lapel and a hot-water bottle clutched to her chest. This gesture of the hot-water bottle on the chest was style-defining for the show. All the silhouettes were wide, loose and oversized for comfort. Lee is partial to work wear which he has shown at Bottega Veneta before and what makes him a perfect fit at a brand that has functional garments at its core. The women’s wear was anchored by the kilt and floor-length dresses.

The new vibe?

If Burberry used to consistently distance itself from football and rugby because of hooligans, Lee appropriated the English rugby team’s rose emblem, had it hand drawn and printed it on his duffle coats and flight jackets. “It’s important to me that Burberry as a brand bridges the gap from football to the royal family,” Lee said backstage, with journalists hanging on every word. And footballers Reece James and Son Heung-min were first row. 

Rose symbolism throughout the collection

The marketing whiz?

Lee seems to be going for the same brand recognition by color formula which he used at Bottega Veneta with green. He brought back the old Prorsum emblem depicting a knight on horseback in royal blue. The new wordmark is also blue and hand drawn by the German graphic designers Carina Frey and Stefanie Barth. It’s eschewing the boring trend of flat, minimal and sans-serif wordmarks which are easily legible on a mobile screen. When Tisci started he asked Peter Saville to give him a clean wordmark like that. Lee might be ushering in a new era as only Giorgio Armani has been holding on to his old eclectic wordmark while most labels like Versace have gone minimal and boring.

Sex doesn’t sell here?

This show was a clear statement of what Burberry no longer wants to be. No hint of sex, seduction or skin was in the collection. This trend is currently dominating the international catwalks, where you can see more corsets and skin than ever before, which was also ushered in by Tisci’s Burberry. Lee’s Burberry is an honest working-class affair, where it’s all about functional clothing, which then becomes fashionable with altered proportions like the oversized coats, surprising prints like little ducks on shirts and trousers and unusual materials like dyed faux fur on all shoes and lapels. The comfort factor was big.

The details?

Super long epaulettes, tassles hanging from shoulders recalling military uniforms, fur trimmed everything and check on check styling with skinny punk and double zipper pants, the collection begs for a re-see in the showroom.