Right at the very start of his career Daniel Lee spent time in New York City working for Donna Karan, an experience he still counts as formative. “I love the American sense of possibility, the directness, the can-do work ethic,” he says when we check in. He adds: “I always love coming back to New York: visiting will never be a burden.
” Burberry’s chief creative officer is speaking from London’s Soho, where Burberry has been temporarily based during the renovation of its Westminster HQ almost since he joined the biggest brand in British luxury at the tail end of 2022. We’re discussing New York because once he’s done fine-tuning the house’s latest pre-collection—“this time of year is always crazy”—he’ll be hopping across the pond next week to formally cut the ribbon on another Burberry renovation project: Burberry’s Lee-redesigned flagship store on 57th Street. First opened in 1970, then expanded hugely at the turn of the millennium, the six-story site has been comprehensively refreshed.
Says Lee: “It’s a prestigious, beautiful place, and we actually own the building. It’s also the first store that I started to work on when I joined in terms of moving forward and evolving the architecture concept of Burberry.” He adds: “A store should usually have a very long lifespan.
That makes it very different to designing a collection that you know typically lives for a season.” When Lee officially christens the store's reopening on October 16 with.