From the 1960s to collections of dolls

Burberry riffs on music festival fashion for crochet-heavy summer collection

By Helen Reid

Burberry presented hippie-inspired crochet dresses, fringed jackets, and tailored suits in acid green, yellow and pink on Monday, drawing on counterculture fashions from the British music scene for its spring/summer 2026 collection and wrapping up London Fashion Week.

A Black Sabbath soundtrack gave a rock’n’roll edge to the catwalk in a huge tent in London’s Kensington Palace Gardens, with models’ boots and sandals crunching on a brown sand floor – evoking the mud of music festivals, a theme Burberry has riffed on this summer.

The show was the sixth collection by creative director Daniel Lee and the third since Joshua Schulman became CEO and overhauled the British brand’s strategy to bring sales back to growth.

Fashion buyers saw in it further evidence of the changes Schulman has made: making sure the marketing – from social media campaigns to the biannual runway shows – tells a coherent story about British culture, and focusing on recognisable Burberry products like outerwear.

“Burberry has sharpened its focus on its most powerful assets – the trench, the check, and outerwear,” said David Thielebeule, fashion director at US department store Bloomingdale’s.

“This season Daniel carried that momentum forward, infusing the classics with a modish rock-and-roll edge through updates in crochet, fringe, mirrored detailing, and metallic finishes,” Thielebeule added.

Lee took inspiration from the connection between fashion and music, Burberry said in a press release after the show.

Under Schulman, Burberry’s advertising has drawn on Britain’s outsized influence on music, featuring artists from Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher to 90s producer and DJ Goldie and hip hop musician Loyle Carner.

Burberry’s check pattern featured on chainmail mini dresses in black and silver, and pink and neon green, and on trench coats, which also came in snakeskin and a tarot card print.

“Burberry’s collection felt like a confident embrace of a younger client, rooted firmly in British culture and the energy of music festivals,” said director of fashion buying at Harrods Simon Longland.

Elsewhere, Irish designer Paul Costelloe took fashionistas back to 1960s California while Turkish-born Bora Aksu celebrated cracks and imperfections.

Setting the scene on Rodeo Drive in 1967, Costelloe opened his Boulevard of Dreams spring-summer 2026 presentation with short feminine creations in pale pink, yellow and blue. There were jackets with pointy collars or bows, embellished minis and shift dresses. All were paired with matching platform shoes.

Models wore floral and frilly designs that nodded to 1960s fashion, including plenty of short dresses as well as cut-out gowns.

“It’s a very happy collection. It very much reflects California in the late sixties,” Costelloe told Reuters. “The inspiration has been from the Valley of the Dolls… It’s very much West Coast of America and it’s very chic, very fresh, very exciting.”

Aksu said that this season he turned to his own collection of broken dolls for inspiration.

Models wore dresses embellished with layers, embroidery and plenty of lace trimmings.

Aksu put frills on sleeves, large shiny sequins on skirts and see-through gloves and intricate florals on frocks.

The looks were layered: tiered dresses or jackets over long blouses that hung over skirts. Models also wore bonnet hats tied under the neck and adorned with bows or sequins.

“I feel like we are like the dolls… we have… our hearts broken or we go through things. But… we still kind of survive and then it becomes part of us,” Aksu told Reuters.

“With the dolls, with all these cracks and defects, I was thinking, I want to keep this and I bring it to… life again. So it’s not about covering their cracks but it’s about embracing them.”

London Fashion Week saw 157 designers and organisations on the prgoramme, including 50 catwalk shows and a mix of emerging as well as established designers.