It’s all change at Burberry, and not just from a business and marketing point of view. Christopher Bailey shifted direction for this second see-now-buy-now coed outing, inspired by one of his longtime lodestars, Henry Moore, the Yorkshire artist and sculptor famous for his off-balance proportions and chunky, curving bronzes. The Moore aesthetic doesn’t exactly jibe with the modern beauty ideal — what woman wants a breast at waist level and a foot like a T-bone steak? — which made Bailey’s choice intriguing.
The show was a departure on many levels — Burberry loves color and this collection came mainly in black, white, gray and a faded, workwear blue, the latter drawn from the everyday wardrobe of the artist himself. It was also Bailey’s most conceptual collection for Burberry, a purveyor of classic fare — the trench, the check, the military coat.
Bailey, who plans to return full-time to the design studio in July, when he’ll relinquish his chief executive role to Marco Gobbetti, tore everything up in the name of the artist, and the result was an abstract take on the brand’s staples.
Trenches were roomy and robust, with thick cuffs and chunky half-belts at the back, while asymmetric knits looked as if they were pieced together. Some
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