Come September, Burberry will be showing its S/S ‘10 Prorsum collection back in Blighty, instead of their usual showing in Milan.
We couldn’t be more excited since we don’t usually make the trip to Italy and missing this show is one of the reasons that is a major bummer.
The brand is coming home to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of London Fashion Week. Designer Christopher Bailey told WWD, “We are incredibly proud of our Britishness and this is really a wonderful opportunity to celebrate that in our home city.”
Stay tuned for more Bailey news as he’s coming to NYC this week for the lighting of the Burberry sign atop their new US headquarters and we’ll be having a lovely little chat with him.
It’s no secret that Alexander Wang’s Fall 08 collection is one of our biggest inspirations for our upcoming Fall wardrobes. Lucky for us, his specific mix of masculinity and femme fatale was echoed at the Burberry, Max Mara and Rick Owens shows, too.
Nothing says serious Fall fashion like a looming darkness and strength - and we’re glad the designers are in on it, too.
So pull out your boyfriend blazer and borrow his beenie hat, with your hair pulled down of course - and what could be sexier than that?
A tuque is defined as a knit winter hat with no brim and a tapered top standing off the head. Also known as my childhood snowman-building accessory of choice.
It’s made a comeback for Fall and was spotted on runways like Burberry and Alexander Wang. I was surprised and kind of tickled - my elementary school wardrobe was getting a nod, but in cashmere and cable knit.
But, no matter how amazing the hat feels or what designer label is sewn inside, we’re totally aware of just how silly these hats look in person.
The unattractive look is twofold: for one, you look a lot like a hobbit with a hat standing a good six inches off the top of your head. And then when you try to correct that by taking it off, your hair looks kind of like a hairball thanks to the magic of static.
But, not only do tuques keep your head truly warm, they also add a certain “what the hell is that?” to your boots and coat outfit.
So, would you wear a tuque? Or is this best left to 4-year olds who don’t care for mirrors?
Is there a British model who hasn’t landed herself in a Burberry campaign?
After the long reign of Kate Moss and the brief intervention of Aussie Gemma Ward, the campaign shot by Testino has scooped up Lily Donaldson, Agyness Deyn, Keira Gormley, Morwenna Cobbald, and Georgia Frost.
The only girl left is Daisy Lowe, who’s lent herself to Doc Martens and Agent Provocateur, but not yet worn the famous Burberry check.
That may soon change, as the daughter of Gavin Rossdale and designer Pearl Lowe was finally spotted on the Burberry Prorsum runway yesterday. She looked cute in her amber necklace and Erin Wasson cap, and walked alongside Lily, Aggie, and the rest of them.
Will she appear in store windows next season?
It would be silly to think not - unless Fred Perry or someone’s already called their dibs.
Louis Vuitton isn’t the only luxury label with a behind-the-scenes video:
This week, Burberry launched their own backstage pass to the Spring ‘08 ad campaign, starring Agyness Deyn, Lily Donaldson, Edie Campbell, Morwena Cobbald, and a handful of guys so skinny, they must be in really successful rock bands.
Seeing the clothes is fun, but of course more exciting is the way the kids model - jumping back and forth to give Mario Testino some motion in the hair and the coats, jabbing elbows at wayward angles to show bracelets and bags, looking cute.
Of course, there’s also between-the-scenes time - when the models are on-set but not actually posing. To keep their energy up, they dance, they giggle, and they goof off -
Like Agyness making jazz hands, which is seriously adorable.
Also: the song they use for their soundtrack has the word “fuck” in it, which isn’t a huge deal, but is a little odd for an elite line’s branding strategy, don’t you think?
Watching this Who What Wear Daily video of the latest Fall Trends felt a bit like letting a big sister into our closet: When someone’s being a gentle know-it-all, especially about your style, you want to tell them “Get out of here, and give me back my Converse!” And yet, you know you should listen, so you grudgingly take a seat and let her work some magic.
That was our reaction to this video, anyway, where the WWWD team skis through a range of runway trends, including the belt-over-sweater trick and also a series of mild lectures about how you should spend all your money on shoes and coats (this may explain why they’ve shown Givenchy shoes with an H&M jacket, which seems like a good idea).
Those living in colder climates (including us, in New York!) really liked how much layering happened in the show, which is a huge bonus when it’s freezing and you’re sprinting to work.
But our favorite moment comes at the end, when they tell you to “make the look your own” - something that’s so easy and so very hard when you’re copying trends from the runway and celebrities!
Now that Agyness Deyn has her own Burberry commercial, it might be time for the brand to find some new British faces to pose with Lily D, Kiera G, and Georgia F.
We hear they’ve found their new girl and it’s Alice Gibb, 15, whom we’ve described as “Lily Cole with tuberculosis” and we actually mean that in a good way.
Alice is especially suited to the stark British brilliance in McQueen, Giles, and Christopher Kane collections (left), so it’s no surprise that all three used her this season (McQueen, in fact, send Ms. Gibb down the runway first).
Now we hear she’ll pose with the rest of the Burberry Brit Pack in their Spring ‘08 campaign. This won’t be Alice’s first time with their photographer, Mario Testino - he shot her at age fourteen for a British Vogue spread where she proclaimed her love of ballet.
We adore redheads and we can’t wait to meet Alice in person, and to hopefully see her Burberry shots. We would also love to feed her some slivers of cake, like Mad Hatters at a tea party, but that’s another story…
Jeffrey Campbell already took a pretty good stab at the Burberry Studded Platform Heel, but just in case you need another option, there’s these clackers from TopShop.
Reader Gabbi reports that the “Studded Crossover Platform” is available for about $130, and instead of a double-studded strap like the Burberry heel, they go for a single strand of metallic pyramids across the heel and toe. Everything else looks the same.
Will the shoe be different enough to prevent a cease-and-desist order?
We doubt it, as the shoes look closer than Mary Kate and Ashley in matching Lanvin sacks. But maybe it won’t come to a lawsuit - before Burberry has a chance to sue, these shoes might become a “So Yesterday” item for both upscale shoppers and high street girls, too.
First Kate Moss gets to talk in her Rimmel commercials, and now we hear that Agyness Deyn will star in Burberry’s new perfume ad - complete with dialogue.
Writes in a secret source from London…
“Just saw the ad for the new Burberry Parfum, starring our beloved Agyness Deyn. It’s COOL, as you imagine.
Aggy even has lines!
Tomorrow the investors will see it, and I bet it will double her cache -
Rumor has it that since she replaced Kate Moss, the Burberry sales are up 30%!”
We’re checking with Burberry to see if they can comment - we didn’t see Agyness out last night (despite four rounds of wine on Ludlow Street), so we couldn’t ask her!
Even though we’ve worn the same Victorian-esque Jeffrey Campbell boots for the past two winters, we can’t say we were surprised to see this mirror image of the Burberry Prorsum Studded Platform Sandal on Oak NYC today.
The studs are a little off, there’s an adjustable strap rather than the little zipper in the back, and the copies just seem to have a patina of cheap turning us off from the look altogether.
Burberry Prorsum continues to astound with its cool shapes, neat fabric folds, and star-studded lineup.
But although we suspect the talk of the town (or of both towns, New York and Milan) will be Agyness’ revolving hair dyes, there’s something else that made us laugh out loud:
Freja Beha dressed up as Posh Spice.
You may think it’s too common a reference for Christopher Bailey to bite, but let’s remember:
This is the designer who got major flack two years ago for courting Mrs. Beckham. Insiders fear it was this move that opened the floodgates of Chav to Burberry, which had to bury its signature check because of constant knock-offs, and associations with fried blond hair and fake nails.
So Freja dressed as Posh on the runway - she’s serving as a little bit of a middle finger, and wearing the coolest sunglasses we’ve seen in a while…
We love this Thursday Styles story about the reopening of the Miu Miu store in SoHo – the description of Miu Miu as a bratty, overweight, rebellious party girl is so spot-on.
“This change signifies that Miu Miu is no longer content to be the bratty kid sister of Prada, the elegant snob. Miu Miu wants her own room now; she doesn’t care anymore if Prada thinks she’s tacky. She’s a little overweight and doesn’t give a damn. She knows how to party, defy parental supervision and skinny-dip in hotel pools — Miu Miu’s last model/mascot, after all, was that rebel-without-a-thong Lindsay Lohan. Ciao, Prada Lite. There’s a new Miu in town.�
This got us thinking about a party full of personified designer brands and what they would be doing – bratty Miu Miu would cut bathroom lines with Heatherette (interpret as you will), slutty Dolce & Gabana might hit on your boyfriend (again), Diesel and DSquared would desperately try to get down with the cool kids, while Marni and Chloe quietly date indie rock stars and host insane parties in their basement, all while pulling Straight As.
But would Burberry Prorsum feel a little left out of the clique?
Every season, there are certain pieces that show up over and over again, everywhere from V to Vogue.
What’s funny is, these pieces are almost always too expensive, too weird, and too directional to ever end up in anyone’s closet - despite becoming emblems of their particular season.
So why do we see them in the pages of every glossy?
It’s the very factors which make these items impossible for real-world-wear that make them so appealing to stylists.
They produce strong, memorable images. They sum up what’s in and exemplify it - in the most literal way possible. They function as a sort of fashion shorthand.
Those items won’t ever be best sellers. You won’t pick up a pair of the Burberry Prorsum gauntlet gloves that are showing up everywhere. But you might buy a matte pair that’s a little longer than the ones you got last year.
Now that the F/W 2007 editorial coverage has started, we predict that this is the piece you’ll be seeing everywhere:
What Faran’s dubbed “the lego shoe,” made by Balenciaga.
Get used to seeing them, and be glad you won’t ever have to wear them… they’re so hard to walk in that Ghesquiere coated his runway with sticky Coca Cola to keep his models from sliding.
Like a best friend in middle school who’s suddenly pretty, Burberry has decided to dump its partner-in-crime, the signature check.
Business Week reports today that head designer Christopher Bailey has made a definite decision to step away from the plaid, focusing instead on the Burberry Prorsum collection, along with their burgeoning handbag category.
We adored what Burberry put on the runway this season, and their leather totes have certainly sprung into the status category (thanks largely to Kate Moss and Kate Middleton), but still -
Louis Vuitton continues to promote their monogram, and even Gucci’s glaring Gs are stamped on sunglasses, bikinis, and canvas bags.
Can Burberry’s succeed without its aspirational print, even if that print has gone the way of spray tans, Victoria Beckham, and Harvey Knicks hooligans?
Hours before Burberry Prorsum’s fall show, Peta protesters stormed the Milan boutique, throwing buckets of red paint on the windows.
Burberry’s rebuttal? A runway full of dark magic, maille references, and warrior princesses that met the future halfway with the medieval. There were no reds on their runway yesterday, but the message from Christopher Bailey was clear: this means war.
The battles were many - Burberry’s trench-heavy heritage vs. Burberry’s bubble-swoosh future. Fair weather party girls vs. stormy, storming women at work. Even the fabrics seemed to fight with each other: a print medley at the show’s end had Julia Stegner in a silk camo print - except up close, the camo turned out to be flowers, and coats on the runway resembled Carine Roitfeld’s winning Alaïa jacket.
Burberry’s fashion crusade even hit the headlines: Mr. Bailey’s chosen models were so skinny, some threatened to disappear into their enormous lapels, and back in action was Snejana, the model who sat out the New York season after being targeted - over and over again - as a danger to women’s health, thanks to her visible bones. She may have lost the battle to walk in Marc and Oscar, but at least on the Milan catwalks (D&G and Pringle, besides Burberry) she appears to be winning her war.
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Come September, Burberry will be showing its S/S ‘10 Prorsum collection back in Blighty, instead of their usual showing in Milan.
Hours before Burberry Prorsum’s fall show, Peta protesters stormed the Milan boutique, throwing buckets of red paint on the windows. 
