Lily James Strips Down, Goes Topless for Burberry Black Campaign

Lily James Burberry Black — Lily James for Burberry Black.

Showing some skin! Lily James strips down to almost nothing in her first-ever global advertising campaign, released on Monday, August 22, for My Burberry Black perfume.

In images for the fragrance, James, 27, goes topless, covering her chest with her arms, while lying on top of the brand’s classic black Heritage trench. The coat, a staple for Burberry, was the inspiration behind the new, moody, floral-based perfume, which is already available in stores and retails for between $72 and $2,800 (for a special collectors’ edition).

Even sexier is the video component, which features a trench-clad James under an umbrella in the pouring rain, unbuttoning the outerwear to reveal absolutely no clothing underneath. The song “I Put a Spell on You” by Duffy plays in the background.

Joining forces with the London-based fashion house was a no-brainer for the U.K. native. “There is a real sense of quintessential Britishness about Burberry that is so effortless and cool,” the Cinderella star said, via Women’s Wear Daily.

In fact, once James signed on the dotted line, she realized that many of her British friends and costars have a Burberry campaign on their resume too. “Whilst I shot this campaign, I was in a film called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and the film poster had just been released,” James noted. “It was me, Sam Riley, Douglas Booth and Suki Waterhouse and a couple of others. And I realized all of us had been a part of the Burberry family.”

Along with the images, shot by famed photographer Mario Testino, James took over Burberry’s Snapchat to promote the fragrance. The brand also created a Snapchat lens, in which users could be seen under their own umbrella and blow a kiss. The idea, as Christopher Bailey, chief creative and chief executive officer of Burberry, told WWD, was to immerse consumers “into all the imagery, sound and storytelling of the My Burberry campaign.”