A synonymous check, translated to a supple metallic chainmail
Burberry’s Check – sometimes called the Nova – has become synonymous with that British brand’s identity in popular consciousness. It was introduced in the 1920s as a lining to Burberry’s already emblematic trench coat, actually just one of a spectrum of tartans and plaids then in use. By the 1960s, customers were coming and specifically asking for coats sporting the beige, black and scarlet crosshatch at Burberry’s Haymarket flagship in London. A decade later, the check had begun to migrate from inside to out and across a plethora of products – umbrellas, of course, scarves, bags, you name it. The Burberry Check was memorably revived again circa 2000, when Burberry entered the fashion arena, and smothered everything from bikinis to baby-strollers before falling out of favour. Much maligned across the past quarter-century, the Check is now ripe for revival, part an ironic embracing of previously eschewed styles, part a genuine celebration of brand heritage. “I think it’s beautiful,” Daniel Lee told AnOther, of the many variations of Burberry Check that he has celebrated from his very first collection. That includes translating the Check into multiple materials – for Spring, a supple metallic chainmail that connects to Burberry’s Equestrian Knight Design, an emblem that used to feature on all the brand’s labelling of a horse rampant, carrying a figure in armour.
The Burberry Chainmail bag is available in Skylark, Gulf, Flood, Dawn and Sash Red now.
