Art and romanticism are keynote of soon-to-be CEO's first catwalk collection since appointment – not the bottom line
When, this spring, Christopher Bailey takes over as chief executive of Burberry as well as its designer, he will become the first fashion designer to gain business control of a label that does not bear his name. Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren oversee their boardrooms as well as their design studios, but Bailey is the first to have achieve this ultimately powerful role without having founded the company.
Burberry's menswear show, staged in a vast transparent marquee next to the Albert Memorial, was Bailey's first catwalk collection since the announcement, and therefore watched closely for clues as to how he intends to balance responsibility for the Burberry bottom line with maintaining a vibrant design studio.
Intriguing, then, for the designer to pledge his allegiance firmly to art over commerce. The collection, entitled A Painterly Journey, was inspired by Bailey's personal creative heroes: Lucian Freud, St Ives artist Ben Nicholson, the Bloomsbury group's Duncan Grant, and Christopher Wood, painter of coastal scenes in Cornwall and Brittany. It was a roll call of great bohemian artists of the British 20th century: men much admired for their vision and creativity but seldom held up as models of business acumen or financial responsibility. This was a romantic, artistic catwalk show, not a hard-headed one. "Design," said Bailey backstage afterwards, "is the expression of a point of view."
Fisherman's rib cardigans were worn over string vests, a combination Bailey borrowed from the outfit worn by a Cornish fisherman in one of Wood's paintings. A mix of earthy, autumnal countryside shades with clear, sharp brights seemed to echo the palette in a well known Duncan Grant self-portrait in which he wears a deep blue blazer with a mustard yellow waistcoat and a starched white shirt, accented with scarlet pocket square and necktie.
For the catwalk finale, all models were wrapped in plaid blankets in camel, grey, purple and red. On a Burberry catwalk, any check will always be read as a reference to the beige check that defined Burberry in its more downmarket days, but these chic squares were closer to the abstract paintings of Nicholson, whose softly colourful graphics were influenced by those of his friend Piet Mondrian.
Artist's impressions of London landmarks were another recurring motif of the show, suggesting Burberry intends to make last season's homecoming from Milan fashion week to London a permanent move. Intarsia renditions of St Paul's Cathedral and silk shirts printed with hand-drawn maps of London streets provided a commercial angle to this collection – in store, the landmarks will probably feature on sweatshirts, iPad covers, ties – and served as a counterweight to the whimsical furry coats and extravagantly hand-painted carpet bags, which provided a charming catwalk mise en scène but might prove a little unusual for mainstream fashion taste.
The London Eyes and Big Bens scattered through this collection serve to ground Burberry in its British heritage and to appeal to a global customer who wishes to buy a piece of that history. "I love the idea that there will be all these little pieces of London, all over the world," said Bailey after the show.
This careful balancing of the global with the intimate is central to the Burberry brand. The catwalk show was livestreamed all over the world– switch from a 4pm showtime to 2pm, chosen because it enables Burberry to reach a larger Chinese audience.
However, instead of tweeting his inspirations or posting his season's references on Facebook, Bailey still waits after the show and speaks directly to those editors and friends who push their way backstage. In this way, he keeps faith with the traditions of the fashion industry, and ensures that in the story told about Burberry the link between what happens in his head and what is available to buy is kept clear and strong in the public mind.
"I didn't want anything to feel uptight," he said. "I wanted softness and the idea of these artists going on their travels, having their adventures."