There is no summer like a British summer—unpredictable, poetic, drenched in rose-scented nostalgia and framed by a sky that broods before it clears. In 2025, Burberry, a brand synonymous with the spirit of the Isles, has partnered with The Newt in Somerset, one of England’s most celebrated countryside estates, to reinterpret what it means to spend the summer in style. The collaboration is not a pop-up. It is not a marketing ploy. It is a cultural placement—a moment where fashion, landscape, and tradition merge in pastoral harmony.
The event began with a flourish at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, that ritual of blooming English pride, where horticulture meets high society. Burberry hosted a dinner not as a mere formality but as a sensory overture: floral arrangements echoing runway palettes, menu items sourced from The Newt’s own gardens, and an atmosphere steeped in elegant ease. This wasn’t just a preview. It was a promise—a glimpse into a summer where style lingers like lavender on the breeze.
The Setting: The Newt in Somerset
To understand the depth of this partnership, one must first understand The Newt. Nestled in the rolling hills of Somerset, this estate is not just land—it is a living tableau, a mosaic of orchards, Roman-style gardens, cider cellars, and neoclassical architecture. It is a destination that reveres both heritage and innovation.
Guests arriving this June will find the estate transformed—not overtaken by Burberry, but elegantly embroidered by it. The brand’s iconic check, reimagined in countryside hues, has been integrated into the estate’s visual language. It appears in subtle fencing details, in parasols over croquet courts, and even in the woven patterns of garden furniture. It is an aesthetic dialogue—not loud, but ever-present, like a familiar accent in a foreign room.
A Great British Summer Reimagined
There is something almost cinematic about this venture. Picture it: the morning mist lifting off the grass courts where guests play badminton under a Burberry-branded canopy, dressed in linen separates from the Summer 2025 collection. A hot-air balloon—draped, of course, in Burberry check—rises above the estate, offering aerial views of carefully cultivated meadows and grazing sheep below. In the distance, a butler in a trench coat delivers champagne and elderflower presse to guests lounging on tartan picnic blankets.
It is a fantasy rooted in place—a merging of fashion house and countryside hospitality that doesn’t feel forced but inevitable. The British summer has always inspired Burberry’s aesthetic; now, Burberry is inspiring the summer.
Design Details: A Dialogue With the Landscape
Burberry’s interventions are not mere embellishments—they are acts of considered curation. The custom check created for this partnership features softened tones: moss green, sun-washed ochre, cream, and slate. It draws from the natural dyes of the estate itself—from apple skins, stone paths, and meadow herbs—so that the pattern doesn’t feel like an overlay but an emergence.
Even the estate’s signage has been gently retouched. Brass nameplates are inscribed with the Burberry typeface, nodding to British craft without distracting from the setting’s classical bones. The brand’s equestrian knight emblem has been subtly carved into garden gates and is echoed in stone water features, all hand-sculpted in collaboration with local artisans.
Fashion as Experience, Not Just Attire
What makes this connection profound is that it doesn’t just sell clothing—it sells the experience of wearing it. Guests have exclusive access to the Summer 2025 collection, but it’s more than a trunk show. It’s immersive retail: try a waxed trench coat while walking through the estate’s apple orchards; test drive new leather sandals on dew-covered garden paths; explore garden labyrinths in oversized sun hats that evoke both Edwardian leisure and modern minimalism.
These pieces are not ornamental. They are functional heirlooms, built to age and evolve with their wearers. There’s a revival of old-school British pragmatism here—a respect for garments that serve as tools, as weatherproof partners in a life lived both outdoors and in.
The Social Calendar: A Season of Sartorial Ritual
The merge unfolds not in one day but across the arc of summer, shaped by a curated calendar of events. There are sunset picnics, with menus designed by The Newt’s culinary team and presentation styled by Burberry’s set designers. Croquet tournaments with monogrammed mallets. Flower arranging classes where guests bind bouquets with Burberry ribbon.
Evenings are reserved for candlelit dinners in converted greenhouses and open-air film screenings, where vintage Burberry campaigns flicker across linen screens under the stars. These aren’t just activities—they’re acts of brand storytelling, told through the texture of linen napkins, the hush of twilight, the color palette of summer’s golden hour.
Sustainability and Craftsmanship in Tandem
In today’s fashion landscape, luxury without sustainability rings hollow. Burberry and The Newt ensure this partnership remains rooted in responsibility. All materials used in the seasonal installations—be it garden textiles, guest linens, or display fittings—are crafted from biodegradable or recycled materials, many produced by British textile mills with long-standing heritage.
The limited-edition pieces featured in the collection are likewise ethically sourced and manufactured, with QR-coded tags that trace each garment’s origin. Even the hot-air balloon’s fabric has been engineered from low-impact materials, and it is powered by carbon-neutral propane. This isn’t just aesthetic theatre—it’s a conscientious celebration.
The Meaning of Britishness Reclaimed
This collaboration asks, implicitly: what does it mean to be “British” in 2025? The answer isn’t rigid. It isn’t colonial. It isn’t performative. It is layered, like Burberry’s coats. It is diverse, like the guests gathered in Somerset. It is timeless but evolving, rooted but exploratory.
By hosting this partnership outside of London, Burberry has decentralized its luxury. The countryside isn’t exile—it’s expansion. It is the revival of a sensibility that understands British elegance not as elitism but as restraint, stewardship, and quiet delight.
Impression
As the sun sets over The Newt in Somerset, casting a warm glow across the barley fields and flickering off silver cocktail spoons, it’s clear this isn’t just an activation. It’s an aesthetic pilgrimage—a moment in which the legacy of a fashion house and the legacy of the land find common ground.
In this dreamlike partnership, Burberry doesn’t just “check into” The Newt—it becomes part of it, woven into its rituals, rhythms, and textures. The countryside, in return, becomes a runway of subtle luxury, where beauty is not announced, but observed.
This is the Great British Summer as it should be lived—understated, tactile, immersive, and dressed in layers of history, linen, and light.
