In 1967, a Parisian Burberry store customer had a moment of inspiration, detaching the iconic ‘Burberry Check’ lining from a trench coat and using it to wrap a suitcase and umbrella. British fashion house Burberry took this as a sign to create a series of accessories featuring their signature check pattern. These luxury items now define the fashion house’s identity, and their recent expansion has brought the Burberry Check to cover the landscapes of El Hierro in the Canary Islands and the Western Cape in South Africa. Burberry is creating a series of larger-than-life land art installations in collaboration with their creative community.
Dubbed ‘Burberry Landscapes,’ the series celebrates founder Thomas Burberry’s reverence for outdoor life and pays tribute to the adventurous stories of his family members. The open spaces of El Hierro and the Western Cape have become temporary homes for these life-sized installations, which will gradually disappear over time.
EL HIERRO, ISLAS CANARIAS – ELSIE BURBERRY
Elsie Burberry, the daughter-in-law of founder Thomas Burberry, was captivated by the Canary Islands’ natural landscapes during her early 20th-century journey. This inspired Burberry to adorn the volcanic grounds of El Hierro with their iconic check pattern. Cuban-American contemporary artist Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada was enlisted to bring the design to life.
Using natural milk-based paint, the illustration was carefully washed away with manual tilling, wind, and local water sources, leaving no lasting mark. Rodríguez-Gerada enjoyed the mineral-based paint’s alchemical nature, as each paint type offered unique densities and coverage, providing a dynamic mixing experience.
BETTY KIRBY-GREEN
In South Africa’s Overberg region in the Western Cape, the Burberry Check pattern emerges near where co-pilots Betty Kirby-Green and flight officer Arthur Clouston landed a Burberry plane in Cape Town. Local ecological experts hand-planted the design in the prairie, nourishing and cultivating the land with water from a rainwater catchment dam.
To ensure the prairie’s restoration, plants were tilled to decompose naturally, becoming fertilizer for the soil. Burberry writes, “Together, these landscapes embody Burberry’s belief that creativity opens spaces, a collection of works celebrating Burberry’s heritage and encouraging people to venture outdoors and rethink the world around them.”