when i first saw pics of burberry prorsum's milan Spring Summer 09 show i was a little confused. I was not quire sure exactly what was going on with the clothes, there were all creased, some dyed really hap-hazardly, at at times it looked like colours had 'run' in the wash or wet. It was all very weird, and i thought maybe there had been some flaws in the fabric or something that had been overlooked by Christopher Bailey. Then I read the review of the show at style.com, and although those reviews tend to be terse and often incomplete compared to the ones at WWD, they are often illuminating as to the exact purpose and vision of the designers… Christopher Bailey had been influenced by the wet and wild summers at his home in Yorkshire, England, and thus had created a collection revolving around the aesthetic and fashions of merry old England.
He had me at hello.
While I may wax lyrical quite often about the French, in particular parisians, I think it is abundantly clear that I am also an unabashed anglophile. Anglomaniac, probably, is the correct term, to borrow liberally from Vivienne herself. I love English boys, English accents, English countryside, English music, English fashion, English art, English films, English history and English atmosphere. I am fascinated by the country and its many eccentricities and every time i visit it feels like coming home... according to my globe trotting sister that is a sign of a country that you would hypothetically inhabit, even though its not your home land. I think i may live there in the future, my family lived there for 6 months when i was 14, and those days really were some of the best of my life haha. :D
So this collection, swiftly became one of my favourites of all of milan, intrigued and interested as i was in the elements of yorkshire 'country' england i could see in the clothes, having spent a fair time there myself back when my grandparents used to live there. And there were all the familiar Burberry touches, the tan trench coats, this time crinkled slightly and looking rain-sodden at the hems as if the models had traipsed their way through a wet field, the pants were darker at the hems, as if they were covered in mud, the fabrics wrinkled to denote the horrible effect water and rain has on beautiful clothes. leather that looked wet and mistreated. little bucket hats wedged the whole way down the striking models' faces. And all in a palette of moss greens, dark muddy browns, flowering pastels and earthy ochres.
I love in the devil wears prada film when miranda priestly sneers 'florals for spring... how groundbreaking'. But with this Burberry Spring/Summer collection it was not so much floral prints as the general sense that the models had just returned from a gardening session, dresses (and petticoats) 6 inches deep in mud, while the summer rain poured overhead.
The aesthetic of this collection, all floral tea dresses in crepe de chine and silks paired with wellington boots, is typical burberry, and is typically stunning, as most things Bailey does these days are. It was the type of clothes that a mitford girl would wear, they were just a perfect embodiment of that vaguely aristocratic quirkiness of dress, the mis-dyed trench coats, the socks and sandals, the frilly embellishments, the beautiful refined pastels mismatched with harsh metallics... just like that slightly odd english rose meandering into tea and cakes and ices after a long walk or horse ride. how picturesque!
[style.com]And there is something undeniably, well, english about this collection. Nothing glaring, Bailey doesn't have to emblazon his dresses with union jacks, or have lily donaldson stride out in a buckingham palace guard's helmet and red jacket (one recalls galliano) to make his point. Indeed, theatrics have never been something synonymous with Burberry. no this collection is the kind of english that exists in the eccentricities of a mitford novel, or Belmotte Tower in I capture the castle, or virginia woolf, the kind of english beauty that you see in the limby, haughty looks of stella tennant, or the angular face of keira knightley. It's odd, but fascinating nonetheless, and after a second and third viewing, entirely adorable.
A few things have made me think about this collection recently. Not the least that it is summer here, and although it is far too hot to wear much more than singlets and denim cut offs, let alone a trench coat and socks, i am wishing it might be so i could make an outfit inspired by these clothes. Another reason why i am revisiting this collection is that the advertisements have been released, and as usual, they are some of the best out there. Burberry unfailingly shoots stunning ads that feature some of the best and brightest of the british models as well as make the clothes look unbelievably stunning. This years the models are the gorgeous Lily Donaldson, the striking faces of new models Eden, Emily (model turned photographer) and Alexina. And into the mix a delightfully dishevelled Alex Pettyfer and you have one hell of a goodlookign campaign.
And the setting is perfect, capturing the collection perfectly: a greenhouse. Among the potted flowers and vaulted glass ceilings stand the models, bedecked in the beautiful clothes, accessorized with the amazing burberry necklaces and bags of this season, and unbelievably, although i suppose that was bailey's purpose, they fit right in. Perhaps not looking as if they were about to plunge their hands into the dirt and sow some seeds, but their presence in the green house makes it look like some exalted location for afternoon tea, rather than just a place to grow plants. Which, any gardener will tell you, is not all a greenhouse is. And yes i know that the actual location was a restaurant, and not a real greenhouse at all. But for the sake of argument, bear with me here.
[tfs]The saturated colour, the intensity of the background and the crowded nature of the greenhouse, hell, even the dirt floors, are a stark contrast to the other campaigns that Burberry has run. Notable, infamous even, for their dogged patronage of the black and white campaign, Bailey shook things up with the now iconic s/s 08 campaign shot in bright colour against a white studio background, and featuring the striking and diverse faces of Bailey's 'muse' agyness deyn, lily, and various rock star offspring (coco sumner), gorgeous rosie huntington whitely, actor alex pettyfer, tom guinness (of the daphne variety) and many others. The clothes, bright, bold and beautiful, shone out like beacons of burberry's success to come, and the campaign, the first in a long line of black and white kate moss ads, was unforgettable.
This campaign shows that Bailey can move with his collections, and has a range in his vision that is enviable among designers today. Many fashion houses, when they stumble upon a winning formula, tend to stick to it like the proverbial glue. Bailey however, has made a bit of a return to burberry campaigns of old, as can be seen through the traditional, static poses of the models, in contrast to the SS 08 campaign where lily and aggy were jumping around, yelling, looking shocked and confused. This campaign seems more calm, and still, and it must be said, a great deal more civilised. But this campaign is not a complete regression either. No, the formula is shaken, not stirred, with the background, which is jarring none the least because a greenhouse is the last place one expects high fashion. The dirt floor, the unwashed windows, the rawness of the flowers dotted around the room, when combined with the lovely, really well styled outfits... the whole thing feels fresh. Which i suppose is rather fitting, in a way, isn't it?
the making of the campaign[tfs]
The other thing that reminded me of this campaign was this picture of Anne Hathaway out and about in LA. I saved it for use this coming friday in 'you look lovely today' post, but i kept looking at it, and then i realised why i was so entranced by it... the trench coat. i know the clothes are spring/summer, and so technically should not even be in stores yet, but this trench has GOT to be a Burberry 'garden girls' one, right? I mean, look at the bottom of it, either she has just walked through a muddy field in the rain, or this trench came with a little note from Bailey saying 'hope you like this jacket, love, CB'. God, it must be hard being famous and beautiful, right?
[celebutopia]I know i did a post mere days ago now about how bright, colourful summers like ice lollies can be just lovely, and indeed they can. but all this lovely english summer talk is making me wish for a summer where it rains still, and long walks through fields of daisies and lavender (see how idealise everything? haha) can be interrupted by a sudden downpour, and so by the time you return home you smell like fresh water and flowers. The kind of summer where it never gets hot enough that tea is off the menu, and where shortbread and little cubes of coconut ice rest on fine bone china in some kind of pastelly-goodness morning room. *sigh*
Now it's up to all you english people to correct my romanticised version with the reality. What is an english summer actually like? haha.
hope your weekends are all fabulous, lovelies.
X
ps. my apologies for the thousands of pics. i got a tad carried away by this lovely collection, the even more lovely ads, and then my own imagined vision of english summer haha.
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