- 1986 (MCMLXXXVI)
- Living
- British
- Céline (assistant to Philo), Bottega Veneta (2018–2021), Burberry (2022–)
- •The Pouch (2019)
- •The Cassette bag
- •Bottega’s neon-green phase
- •Burberry heritage revival
Daniel Lee
The Bradford-born designer who produced at Bottega Veneta from 2018 to 2021 the most viral luxury silhouettes of the late 2010s — and now runs Burberry.
Daniel Lee was born in 1986 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. He studied at Central Saint Martins, graduated in 2011, and assisted Phoebe Philo at Céline from 2012 to 2018. Kering named him creative director of Bottega Veneta in July 2018, at thirty-two.
Bottega
Lee’s three-and-a-half-year tenure produced the most viral luxury bag since the Fendi Baguette: The Pouch, a soft cloud-shaped clutch in the house’s intrecciato leather at EUR 2,500. Its sequel, The Cassette, followed. The house’s sales rose 25% in 2019 and 14% in 2020 in a pandemic-contracting market. Bottega won four British Fashion Awards in a single evening in 2019.
Quiet luxury means the label is inside the bag. — Daniel Lee
Burberry
In November 2021 Lee abruptly departed Bottega. In September 2022 Burberry appointed him chief creative officer. His Burberry — a deliberate reinstatement of the brand’s 1930s-1960s British heritage, with the Equestrian Knight logo restored — is three seasons into a commercial experiment whose results are still being assessed.
