Merry Mayhem
Review of Burberry Holiday 2026 Ad Campaign by Creative Director Daniel Lee with Director Harmony Korine with Pierce Brosnan, Fiona Shaw, Wu Lei, Dylan Brosnan, Cara Delevingne, Dwyane Wade, Gabrielle Union-Wade, Kim Min-ha, Nico Parker and Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath
The trick to a good country-house Christmas is knowing when to stop behaving like the house. Burberry’s Festive 2026 campaign has the grand address, the handsome coats, and Pierce Brosnan looking reassuringly capable of finding the drinks. It also has dogs underfoot, children on the steps, and Cara Delevingne with a boot planted on the upholstery. Under Daniel Lee’s creative direction, “Wrapped in Burberry: Celebrating 170 Years” makes a welcome proposition for an anniversary campaign: invite people over, give them something warm to wear, and let the occasion get pleasantly out of hand.
Longleat House in Wiltshire supplies enough ancestral grandeur for several generations of advertising. Yet the strongest pictures find ways to interrupt its formality. In the group portrait at the entrance, the adults gather neatly in dark checks while children and dogs pursue entirely separate arrangements below. It has the familiar imbalance of a family photograph: someone has organized the picture, but nobody has managed to organize the family. That small disorder makes the invitation feel warmer. Burberry may have booked a stately home, but it understands the appeal of a house with people in it.
Brosnan and Fiona Shaw are particularly good choices to preside over the gathering. Both bring presence without needing to announce it, and their expressions leave room for a little private amusement. Brosnan’s portrait in a pale coat, dark tailoring, and a long checked scarf is almost disarmingly straightforward. The clothes suit him; the room suits him; the dogs appear satisfied with the arrangement. Shaw, standing on the lawn in a belted trench between two attentive dogs, gives the same familiar garment a brisker authority. Between them, Burberry finds two persuasive ways of looking entirely at home.
The clothes do much of their best work through these differences in character. The trench feels assured on Brosnan, practical on Shaw, and fresh on Nico Parker, whose silk neck scarf and casually belted silhouette bring a lighter touch. Delevingne curls into a red sofa in dark checks, heavy black boots, and bright red socks, with a brown bag tucked against her side. The red upholstery picks up the socks while the bag’s smooth leather stands apart from the surrounding pattern. It is a lovely fashion picture with a recognizable social type inside it: the guest who makes herself comfortable before anyone has offered.
Color helps keep all that heritage from becoming brown around the edges. Deep green and navy checks settle into the wood-paneled rooms, then red scarves, ribbons, and knitwear wake them up. The portraits alternate between a bright, direct look and softer light that catches faces against windows or the evening sky. In the close image of Gabrielle Union-Wade and Dwyane Wade, white knitwear and dark scarves frame broad smiles, with the architecture receding behind them. The warmth comes from their closeness. Cashmere is fortunate to be invited into the embrace.
The film, directed by Harmony Korine, extends the gathering into golf buggy races and party games before a disco-ball finale set to Sylvester and Patrick Cowley’s “Do You Wanna Funk.” The choice of music gives the country-house premise a welcome nudge. After all that good breeding and excellent outerwear, a little abandon is in order. The supplied stills offer a quieter pleasure alongside that party narrative, allowing a glance or a pair of muddy-weather boots to carry the personality. They also make the scarves feel like gifts someone might actually choose for someone they know, rather than seasonal merchandise awaiting a famous neck.
There is a limit to how surprising a celebrity Christmas at a country house can be. The vintage car, the grand rooms, and the greenery around the fireplace belong to a very familiar British luxury fantasy. A few portraits are content to leave the famous face and beautiful coat to do the work, and the cast’s range promises more unexpected encounters than the stills always deliver. More pictures of guests caught together, rather than individually presented, would have made the imagined friendships more convincing. The entrance portrait points the way: the campaign becomes most engaging when something escapes the arrangement.
Still, Burberry has good reason to feel comfortable here. Its outerwear belongs on the walk outside, its checks can move from one generation to the next, and its scarves make sense as expressions of affection. The anniversary gives the gathering a reason, but it rarely weighs down the mood. What makes the campaign appealing is the suggestion that these clothes will be present for the small pleasures and mild chaos people remember afterward. At 170, Burberry knows how to dress for the occasion. Better still, it knows whose boot to let onto the sofa.
Burberry Creative Director | Daniel Lee
Film Director | Harmony Korine
Models / Talent | Pierce Brosnan, Fiona Shaw, Wu Lei, Dylan Brosnan, Cara Delevingne, Dwyane Wade, Gabrielle Union-Wade, Kim Min-ha, Nico Parker and Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath
Location | Longleat House, Wiltshire, England