Large green sheets with rectangular cut-outs hung around the ground floor of London’s National Theatre. The work of renowned YBA artist Gary Hume, these artworks were inspired by his installation, Bays, which debuted at the East Country Yard group show in 1990 devised by Sarah Lucas and Henry Bond at a gigantic empty warehouse in London’s Docklands. Hume’s original pieces were crafted from vast lorry tarpaulins in scrubs green slashed with rectangular cut-outs inspired by the functionality of hospital doors – a fabric translation of Hume’s enamel paintings of the same subject. Bays has since been untouched by Hume, until Daniel Lee came along.

Inside the Brutalist Denys Lasdun-designed Theatre, a venue so accustomed to elaborate backdrops, models walked between Hume’s artworks, their cut-outs providing windows to glimpse Burberry’s latest collection. Those conversations between designer and artist must have rubbed off on Lee, as Hume’s abstract, figurative practice crossed over onto the runway, as did the artist’s measured restraint and ability to find elegance in the everyday.

Check collar polo shirts, neckerchiefs, sculptural shirts and workwear-inspired tailoring were all cast in Hume’s signature Dulux colour palette, including his famous 1994 reductive portrait of Patsy Kensit – who sat front row alongside the likes of Declan Rice, Damon Albarn, Jerry Hall, Loyle Carner and Barry Keoghan – while the artist’s geometric shapes translated through chopped and cropped outerwear. Trenches reconstructed as jackets, dresses and tops reimagined in washed silk, poplin and linen, their shapes defined and detailed by zips, buttons, straps, drawstrings, and vents – often with silk organza faux feathers sprouting from their hoods. Staying true to the house’s heritage, Burberry Check covered cargo trousers, hooded jackets, loose-hanging skater belts and zip-front trousers. Lee has often spoken about Burberry coats as pieces people invest in and live in, and this was cleverly echoed by capes, parkas and biker jackets crafted in weathered, sun-bleached materials that created that beautiful look of age and wear. Elsewhere, floral prints spoke to Hume’s 2000’s series Here’s Flowers, and the more recent, Double Bloom. The final look, a fringed dress hand-stitched with metallic paillettes, epitomised a mood of joyful creativity, one that stuck with us the next day as we stopped by Hume’s exhibition, Mirrors and other creatures, currently running at Sprüth Magers gallery, London.