Christopher Bailey is partial to rain. His shows have often made a feature of it. But when Bailey called his mum before the Burberry show today, she told him his home village was flooded. Forget gentle spring showers, the heavens have opened over England more often than a body can bear of late, and there was a palpable sense of so-over-it in Bailey's new collection. No more the natural-toned waterproofs for long walks through the pleasurably melancholic spring mist (although the downbeat soundtrack was a holdover from those days). Instead, eye-popping metallics to repel the never-ending deluge, true Brit grit going glam in defiance of bloody-minded Mother Nature.
After a string of charming but muted celebrations of the artisan's hand, Burberry was actually in need of some pop electricity, and Bailey used it effectively (bar the shiny sandals with the black socks). Surely you can only look at a soberly toned, leanly tailored suit so many times before you surrender to the desire to juice it with a shirt in an ice-blue metallic silk. Or maybe you'd rather wrap it in a fuchsia-shaded foil trench. The effect was stunning in the metallic leather blousons that closed the show. And when Bailey slipped metallics under the substantial military-influenced outerwear that is a house signature, it irresistibly reminded at least one onlooker of the TV series V, where the aliens peel away their normal faux-human exteriors to reveal sheen-y lizard skin beneath. Aliens Among Us? When was that ever a Burberry association?
A more familiar company connection was established by prints using the pallid tones and impressionistic patterns of the Bloomsbury Group, which dominated the English avant-garde during the 1920's and '30s. But in this context, even they took on a new verve, especially when cut into long shirts and paired with hot metallic pants in outfits that looked like a sci-fi take on the last days of the Raj. Such a notion might have provided inspiration for a Bryan Ferry song in the early 1970's. The fact that Christopher Bailey could provoke such a flight of fancy in the 2010's was reason to cheer.
