It was reported last week that it has rained in the UK every day in 2026 (lucky us). As a result, London Fashion Week’s AW26 season has been particularly wet – and last night’s Burberry show was no exception. Good thing the brand is known for its trench coats. It’s been three years since Daniel Lee made his debut as creative director of the British heritage house, and for his latest offering, the northern designer took over Old Billingsgate, the former fish market on the River Thames. 

It might’ve been a grey start to the year here in the UK capital, but if you can count on anyone to brighten the bleak midwinter, it’s Burberry and its glittering array of guests. Here’s everything you missed from the final show of London Fashion Week AW26. 

THERE WAS WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE

Outside the venue, guests posed to have their pictures taken with a backdrop of Tower Bridge. Inside, Burberry had erected its own version of the London monument, which is often wrongly confused with London Bridge. The huge structure loomed in the centre of the room; meanwhile, fake puddles surrounded it. With every show, Lee takes inspiration from some element of British culture (ducks, festivals, walks in the countryside), and this season, his muse was the constant rain. It has been inescapable after all. 

The space was filled with blue light, like a scene from Gene Kelly’s 1952 film, Singin’ in the Rain – as recreated in 2008, for George Sampson’s winning performance on Britain’s Got Talent (IYKYK).

A DELUGE OF STARS

As always, it wouldn’t be a Burberry show without a stellar cast of Great British stars lining the front row. Fresh from her Best New Artist win at the Grammys, Olivia Dean arrived in a trench coat fashioned as a skirt, while PinkPantheress, Skepta and Kwn were also flying the flag for the musicians. Elsewhere, actors also occupied a healthy portion of the guestlist – Hamnet’s sibling duo Noah and Jacobi Jupe were joined by Industry stars Marisa Abela and David Jonsson, while Matthew Macfadyen, Leo Woodall and Joe Locke also made it through the rain for Burbs.

WE’RE ALL GOING OUT OUT

If you hadn’t guessed from the set design, this season’s collection was inspired by a Great British night out, or as Lee put it in the show notes: “going out in a particularly London way.” While previous collections found inspiration in the countryside, AW26 was all about nightlife. “Hackney carriages glide down wet roads; night buses hum with tinny phone speakers,” continued the show notes. “Under Lee, the tension between heritage and youth isn’t a clash – it’s a spark.”

DANIEL LEE LOVES FKA TWIGS

There were so many possible soundtrack options for a show about rain: Rihanna’s “Umbrella”, Prince’s “Purple Rain”, The Weather Girls’ “It’s Raining Men”. And yet, Daniel Lee decided to come out as an FKA twigs megafan instead. The entire show was set to twigs’ music, despite the singer not actually being there. The show opened with “How’s That”, a track from the singer’s 2013 EP2, followed by songs from her Magdalene and Eusexua eras. If the showspace was a tour of London’s greatest landmark (Tower Bridge), then the soundtrack gave us a discography tour of one of London’s greatest musicians, FKA twigs. (Watch Pink Pantheress vibing to the soundtrack above).

ALL IN ON OUTERWEAR

As we all know by now, outerwear is at the core of the Burberry brand, and this season Lee went all in on reimagining clothes for colder weather. Models appeared on the runway in belted leather trench coats, down-filled parkas, quilted bomber jackets, and calf-length shearling, while the opening model appeared in a classic Burberry trench remade with frilly lapels.

Elsewhere in the collection, models appeared in black leather jumpsuits and ostentatious, 80s silhouettes, while the colour palette remained dark and rich throughout, filled with black, browns, burgundys and navy. Brits like Romeo Beckham, Edie Campbell and Rosie Huntington-Whitely walked the runway, while international models like Sora Choi and Angelina Kendall joined them too.