Burberry channels lido nostalgia with check-clad swimwear and poolside style

Burberry is betting that the strongest luxury summer story right now is not a tropical escape, but the clean, tailored fantasy of the lido. The house’s High Summer 2026 project puts Simone Ashley and Tom Blyth at the center of a sunlit world of loungers, splashy water and check-clad swimwear, a reminder that polished resort dressing has become more than a seasonal sideline. It is now a commercial lane in its own right, one that Burberry is clearly intent on making repeatable.

The collection pushes Burberry Check far beyond a trench lining or scarf motif. It shows up in a bikini, matching swimsuits, men’s swim shorts, cotton-voile tops, skirts and shirts, plus deckchair-striped cover-ups and crocheted bucket hats. The palette stretches the signature check into sand beige, aubergine purple and cornflower blue, giving the pattern a softer, more sun-faded register that feels designed for pool decks and hotel terraces as much as for the beach. Burberry’s Margate bags, meanwhile, bring a craft story to the mix: they are handcrafted in Madagascar from locally sourced raffia palm leaves.

The mood is deliberately nostalgic. Burberry said the film and image portfolio captured “life at the lido,” and Daniel Lee called the lido a place with “a particular kind of nostalgia” for Britons. That is the key to the collection’s appeal. The lido is public, social and slightly cinematic, which makes it a useful mood for fashion right now: less escapism for escapism’s sake, more a refined version of summer life that still feels relatable. Ryan McGinley shot the imagery, Francis Plummer directed the film, and the soundtrack used the TONE remix of Tirzah’s “Beating,” giving the whole project a breezy, contemporary charge without losing its sense of place.

Burberry is also building continuity into the idea. Its previous High Summer push, launched on April 9, 2025, leaned on Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Jack Draper, a yacht named Check Mate and takeover events at The Newt in Somerset and The Standard in Ibiza. This year’s version is more poolside than yacht club, but the strategy is the same: turn summer into a branded ritual. That is where the look will travel next, into more ordinary wardrobes through check swimwear, raffia accessories, voile separates and the kind of neatly styled cover-up that makes a day by the water feel like an occasion.