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Burberry's Fresh Air
By Godfrey Deeny
Photos by Gruber-FWD
MILAN, Mar 6, 2003/ FWD/ --- In a city where most of the designers are beyond retirement age, it was refreshing to attend the Burberry collection, designed by Christopher Bailey, a man half the age of most of his contemporaries.
Bailey is young enough for even his mother Eliana, who joined the audience for her first Burberry show, to be the junior of many of the name designers in Milan. More importantly, Bailey’s designs and sensibility were correspondingly fresh.
Since joining Burberry back in late 2000, Bailey has concentrated on marrying the famed label’s functional element to a modern idea of sportswear. Today he refined that goal, marrying in elements of couture in terms of fabric and finish, in one of his best collections for the historic brand.
Opening to Mike Oldfield’s classic album "Tubular Bells", Bailey sent out a series of inventive urban looks that seemed just right for fall winter 2003. Curvy little jackets in faded cotton and leather worn over leggings with exposed shoe straps were just the sort of look a young designer with his eyes open, rather than an elderly one locked in his palazzo, understands that women want to wear.
His series of tight jackets with slim panels, hoods and high collars will find ready customers, as will his funkier black trench coats. Bailey’s ability to marry two different garments in one is a great asset. Today he mixed military fatigues and leggings to come up with great pants that were new, and he played around with similar zip pockets to develop novel skirts that once again were original.
Bailey is also an assured colorist, something for which he’s not given enough credit. He used fluorescent green, bright pink and dyed yellow but sparingly as trim or piping, so they never overpowered.
But his best idea was a series of chiffon skirts and dresses with open frayed hems that swaddled the models sexily.
"I wanted to open the mood up. Let some air in. You might know that Mike Oldfield got his ideas from walking on the moors. I wanted that sense of fresh air in this collection," Bailey told FWD backstage. You did. It was a collection that was not just hip, it was healthy.
Burberry Prorsum
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