DAVID HUME
Written By: Ali Y. Khadra & Jenna Delaney
Throwing shapes and functional fabrics, designer Daniel Lee and artist David Hume combine their creative talents to showcase Burberry's Summer 2025 collection.
For its Summer 2025 show, Burberry didn’t pitch another big top tent in a tree-lined London park, instead the House presented its latest collection at the National Theatre on the Thames’ South Bank – a decision dictated by the show space that awaited us inside. As show-goers walked into the brutalist building, we became immersed in British art. The building itself is a landmark of arts and culture, and hung from its concrete ceiling were the works of British artist Gary Hume.
The architecture of the space complemented Hume’s modernist pieces which were made from sheets of green tarpaulin, mirroring the shade of surgical gowns. Hume’s work is often influenced by shape and lines, and here, mysterious forms were cut into the draped pieces of fabric creating porthole-like windows throughout the space.
While the set was original, in a first collaboration between Daniel Lee and Hume, the artwork displayed came from Hume’s installation ‘Bays’ which was first shown in a seminal group exhibition in London’s Docklands, in 1990. “Working with Gary has been amazing. I have been so inspired by his thought process; his use of color, shapes, and the emotion behind his works. It has been so important in designing this collection,” said Lee on the collaboration. “The connection between Gary’s work and Burberry made sense. The materiality – it’s functional and protective.” Finding common ground in creativity, functionality, and shape, Lee and Hume presented a Summer 2025 collection against a backdrop of intrigue.
Models walked among the green tarps in deconstructed trenches, cropped rainwear, and car coats cut from bonded linen. Fabrics were washed, weathered, and sun-bleached, reinforcing Lee’s feeling of protection in the outdoors, while big feather-trimmed parkas worn over sequinned dresses symbolized
joy, warmth, and practicality – the essentials needed to brave a British summer. Once again, bags were inspired by days in the country with equestrian saddles and Burberry check styles in patchwork leather. And we were introduced to the Thistle sling bag, which reworked the silhouette of bagpipes in woven wool.
There were subtle nods to Hume too: knitted and check collar polo shirts in color-blocked versions inspired by the work of the artist, some were even printed with painterly pastoral scenes. Hume is familiar with the role of the muse, with his work previously inspiring designs from fellow fashion Houses, but his role as set designer/sceneographer was refreshingly new, as was his newfound friendship with Lee.
Back in September, at the opening of Hume’s Mirrors and Other Creatures exhibit at the Sprüth Magers gallery in London, we chatted to Hume ahead of the Burberry show…
ALI Y. KHADRA: For Burberry Summer 2025 you collaborated with Daniel Lee on the set and scenography, but did the collaboration extend to the fashion as well?
GARY HUME: No, I think Daniel was a very wise man and saw what I was wearing and said, “I only want you to do the set”.
AYK: Can you tell me more about the set. Are there going to be mirrors, paintings, or the sculptures you’re known for?
GH: It is a work from a long time ago that Daniel somehow came across; it was 30 years ago. He contacted me and asked whether I remembered them and whether I still had them and if we could do something. Of course, he was very vague at that point, and then it turned out that he wanted to meet with his team to build a show around my work. So with those works in mind, we went out and we tried to find a location where we could hang them and construct the show around the pieces.
AYK: Were the works still in your possession or were they with collectors/museums? And why was Daniel specifically interested in those works from that period?
GH: I did have the works. I’m not 100% sure how Daniel became familiar with them because we didn’t speak about it directly. But we very much enjoyed meeting each other. It was great to be with a fellow creative and we
bonded instantly.
AYK: Did Daniel give you free rein or did you have some limitations for the creative production?
GH: There was free rein to a point. Of course, there’s a whole team and logistical things that you have to consider. It was not me working on a painting where I have a plain rectangle and I’m allowed to do anything I like. It’s “we need 300 people to sit here, and we need a camera shot here”. There are aesthetical things that need to be done. But weirdly, I was never told no. So I did have freedom.
AYK: And what about the magnitude of the works? Because when you produced the pieces you weren’t thinking about such a big stage. So how have you interpreted them in the show space? Have you used screens to project your work or recreated pieces?
GH: We’ve used the actual objects, in their original form.
AYK: Incredible. How much time did it take you to install them?
GH: There are 100 people down there now [in the show space] going crazy.
AYK: I’m very much looking forward to seeing it. What will happen to this collection once the show is over, will it go back to you?
GH: Yes.
AYK: And what other collaborations have you done in the past with other fashion Houses?
GH: Stella McCartney, Marni, and Louis Vuitton. But I’ve never worked on a set before. For previous collaborations, Houses have been inspired by my work and channeled that into fashion. So it wasn’t really me. They used one of my paintings and made it into a design, rather than a whole set featuring my actual works.
AYK: Tell me about the current show we are at right now? This body of work was produced recently. It’s all contemporary, right?
GH: Yeah, this is what I’ve been making for the last two years.
AYK: It’s very beautiful and I really like the colors and the shapes within the pattern. Can you tell me what the inspiration was?
GH: The motif mainly comes from swans, but not always. Sometimes there are other shapes that I’ve taken from smoke. To tell you what it
is about is an impossibility, because they’re not really about anything. The subject isn’t specific or abstract, the subject is figurative. The subject is Hume and the object I make. I guess the subject is the object on the wall and I don’t really know what that is, and I didn’t want to know what it was. I just wanted to make it apparent.
AYK: Thank you very much. Why did you call it Mirrors and Other Creatures?
GH: I see a horse, I recognize it; I have feelings, and I’m separate from it. But that horse could be a snail or a worm or some other creature. I have that same sensation when I look at my own reflection. When I look in the mirror, I see this face looking back at me, but my face isn’t the person that’s looking. I’m thinking, ‘Who the f**** is that?’ I know I’m me, but why don’t I look like me? That’s why it’s Mirrors and Other Creatures.
AYK: Congratulations. I can’t wait to see the Burberry show.
END OF STORY