From a business point of view, Burberry is a gigantic techno-beast, surfing on a digital tsunami. But Christopher Bailey s particular skill is to balance the highest tech with the softest touch. His favorite inspirations seem to be gentle manifestations of British culture: handcrafts, mournful balladeers, watercolors, village greens…and the latest, the books he s been finding in flea markets, which may be the most charming yet. There was poetry in the faded colors and hand-drawn titles of those old book covers, made manifest in Prorsum s Resort collection, where almost everything was decorated with words. They were variations on a theme. Bad weather may be the great British cliché, but it s been a blessing for Bailey. "The magic and mayhem of British rain" scrolled across one item; "Rolling fields for rainfall and exploration" across another. It was a peculiar flourish, but oh-so-pretty. It was romantic, too, and that was the spirit that animated a trench in dip-dyed lace (how far the Burberry trench has traveled under Bailey!) or pencil skirts in fringes of raffia and petals of rags, also dip-dyed.
That long, lean silhouette is something the designer is partial to. It often feels like he s referencing British movies of the thirties and forties, when women dressed stiff-upper-lip sharp in wartime. It s an impression that was reinforced here by military details like the bellows pockets on a skirt or the military buttons marching up a sleeve. A softly tailored regimental coat and a nip-waisted safari jacket in cotton canvas elaborated on the story. And, for evening, a long dress with Delphic pleating also felt like a piece of vintage cinema. If nothing was as bold as the dishabille artist s muses in Bailey s Fall collection, there was still the sense here of a designer who is having a really, really good time steering the Burberry colossus into more colorful waters.
