The opening skirl of U2's "Where the streets have no name" established a triumphal tone, which Christopher Bailey resolutely dialed down with the clothes that followed. In his show notes, he tipped his flat cap to the England of Bill Brandt (1904-1983), the photographer whose images captured the country's austerity in the years immediately following World War II. Obvious historical parallels aside (things aren't quite that bad in England just yet), the implied make-good-in-hard-times ethos actually worked wonders for Bailey, whose last collection surrendered to pallid melancholia.
This time, the outerwear, paired with butch pinstripes, had the don't-mess-with-me balls of union agitators on the docks Up North. The cabled knitwear had a gutsy chunk, too. Bailey used the iconic Burberry check as he never has before with Prorsum, which suggested he'd truly embraced the weight of heritage. Still, there was the sense that he'd given himself the freedom to toy with more personal, romantic inclinations. Washed-cotton shirts with pleated fronts and little ties at the throat were like something out of Thomas Hardy. Velvet suits, also washed, in bottle green and midnight blue, had an exhausted glamour. And the Fair Isle cummerbunds ? Folksy, but chic. Maybe that triumphal tone wasn't so wrong after all -triumphal on a personal level, anyway.
This time, the outerwear, paired with butch pinstripes, had the don't-mess-with-me balls of union agitators on the docks Up North. The cabled knitwear had a gutsy chunk, too. Bailey used the iconic Burberry check as he never has before with Prorsum, which suggested he'd truly embraced the weight of heritage. Still, there was the sense that he'd given himself the freedom to toy with more personal, romantic inclinations. Washed-cotton shirts with pleated fronts and little ties at the throat were like something out of Thomas Hardy. Velvet suits, also washed, in bottle green and midnight blue, had an exhausted glamour. And the Fair Isle cummerbunds ? Folksy, but chic. Maybe that triumphal tone wasn't so wrong after all -triumphal on a personal level, anyway.
