Milan Fashion Week: Burberry Prorsum is anything but drab

• Author: kissfendi
• Filed under: Alternative Lifestyle, Beauty, Fashion, Fashion Week, Fendi, Kiss Bloggs, kissfendi
• Date: Feb 19,2008

As Billy Bragg’s haunting “The Man in the Iron Mask” echoed around the vast tented theatre on Corso Venezia, Christopher Bailey’s hauntingly beautiful collection for Burberry Prorsum, inspired by L.S.Lowry, unfolded on the catwalk.

Although Bailey took Lowry as a reference point, nothing could have been further from the drab colours and industrial landscapes of 19th and 20th century northern England, most associated with the painter; although some might say the willowy models could qualify as “Matchstick Women”.

Bailey’s vision was de luxe. And in luxury fabrics, in shades of olive, emerald and moss, copper and smokey brown, purple, amethyst, kingfisher and sapphire, it ushered in a sense of new volume, focused almost around The Coat.

Empire lines, curved and gathered yokes, raglan sleeves, tiered skirts and cocoons, plus an oversized trench, all emphasized this graceful, curvy shape, a silhouette which was echoed in the tiered and tulip dresses, often with puffed sleeves.

Rich fabrics, including cashmere, silk, a gloss-finish wool jacquard, silk paisley and smocked velvet underscored the mood.

But in a study in contrasts, these pieces were juxtaposed with more mundane, workaday accessories such as knitted pixie hats in grey and burgundy and fingerless gloves in bottle-green.

The handcrafting which characterized the end of the collection was just as dramatically different. Feathered scarves, glass beads and multi-layered silver necklaces resembling the thorns of a rose, came with delicate, twisted chiffon dresses.

Leather, hand-cut to look like feathers, chiffon sliced and spliced to look like feathers and, finally, real feathers, hand-painted with gold brush-strokes to echo a canvas in oils, created dresses and coats of extreme, rich beauty, as delicate as a bird’s wing and as natural as the cascade of autumn leaves which fluttered down front the ceiling onto the finale cavalcade of models. /telegraph.co.uk