Tom Blyth Strips Down Poolside For Burberry’s High Summer Campaign
Tom Blyth, the British actor best known to queer audiences for playing a closeted cop in Plainclothes, is the face of Burberry’s High Summer 2026 campaign. Released on 14 April 2026, the shoot features Blyth lounging at a lido in Burberry check swim shorts, and it lands exactly the way you think it does.
The campaign
Directed by Francis Plummer and shot by photographer Ryan McGinley, the High Summer 2026 campaign leans into the British lido tradition of open-air pools, long summer days, and a particular kind of easy sun-drenched style. Blyth stars alongside Bridgerton star Simone Ashley, model Alva Claire, Babacar N’Doye, Sacha Quenby, and a cast of synchronised swimmers and divers.
“A lido holds a particular kind of nostalgia for the British. The moment the sun comes out, we make the most of the weather. We wanted to bring to life a warm summer’s day spent in and around the water’s edge with friends,” said Daniel Lee, Burberry’s Chief Creative Officer, in the brand’s campaign notes.
Why gay audiences are paying attention
Blyth’s stock with gay viewers has been climbing steadily since Plainclothes, director Carmen Emmi’s Sundance debut about an undercover cop in 1990s Syracuse who falls for one of his targets, played by Russell Tovey. The film pulled an 84% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It pushed Blyth out of leading-man territory and into serious actor territory, willing to take on queer stories with real weight.
Speaking to Variety in 2025, Blyth described the film’s intimate scenes as “really intimate, really vivid” and credited the intimacy coordinator for keeping the work grounded. He also said he was surprised to learn these sting operations against gay men ran well into the early 2000s, not just the 1950s as he had first assumed.
Burberry is not a one-off for Blyth. He has quietly built a career that balances commercial work like The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes with character pieces like Plainclothes. Fashion is the easy part of what he is doing; his range across genres is the real story.
Are we surprised a British label wanted him fronting their biggest summer campaign? Not for a second. The check swim shorts are just a bonus.
