LONDON — Burberry has tapped John Madden, the Academy Award-winning director of “Shakespeare in Love,” for its latest outerwear campaign, which is another tribute to British food, history and culture.
The campaign, “It’s Always Burberry Weather: Postcards From London,” also features the Oscar-winner Olivia Colman, who plays a variety of roles in the four film shorts with typical spark and wide-eyed enthusiasm.
Her roles include an ice-cream-eating spectator at a cricket match, a busking piano player, a chip shop lady serving up deep-fried cod and haddock and a tour guide pointing out a statue of Sir Walter Raleigh.
In the films she engages with first-time tourists to the city, offering cheese-and-pickle sandwiches (a lunchbox staple with sweet relish) to the tour group, and serving up advice on the fish and chips. “Cod’s a classic, but haddock is tastier in my opinion,” she tells her customers.
The new Burberry outerwear campaign, against the background of a chip shop.
Daniel Lee, chief creative officer at Burberry, said each film aims to “celebrate just a few of the many characters you’ll encounter in London.” The glamorous tourists, all of whom are decked in Burberry, are played by models including Amelia Gray, Liu Wen, Lucky Blue Smith, Mona Tougaard and Tyson Beckford.
The campaign breaks Wednesday and will be accompanied by a series of pop-up shops “inspired by the spirit of rail adventures, and the romance of returning to London by train,” according to Burberry.
The pop-up interiors are inspired by the fall 2025 show and blend the industrial aesthetic of historic train stations with Arts and Crafts detailing and Lee’s vision for fall.
As reported, Lee drew inspiration from the interiors of stately homes, and in particular their wallpaper and rich textiles. He was also inspired by the countryside of his native Yorkshire, turning the wintry colors into distressed leather trenches and jackets, some with delicately embroidered capes at the back; fur-lined bombers, and belted poncho raincoats.
An image from the new Burberry outerwear campaign.
Select locations in China, Japan and Korea will feature themed pop-ups, which will also include ticket booths and gifting kiosks designed to echo station platforms.
In another nod to Burberry’s heritage, replicas of the 1930s clock from the brand’s former flagship on Haymarket will feature in select pop-ups.
The actual clock has recently been installed at its Horseferry House headquarters in Westminster. Made from gold leaf, cast iron and German opal glass, the clock was removed from the Grade II-listed Haymarket building in 2015 and has since been restored by expert horologists.
An image from the new Burberry outerwear campaign.
The outerwear campaign, photographed by Drew Vickers, is a follow-on from the brand’s first big campaign under chief executive officer Josh Schulman, which broke last October.
That campaign also featured Colman, in addition to well-known faces including Barry Keoghan, Cara Delevingne, and Little Simz. It was shot by Alasdair McLellan in London and the British countryside, and inspired by a slogan from the archive, “It’s Always Burberry Weather.”
