You can usually see the trees and sky through the sides of the huge plastic tent in Kensington Gardens where Burberry mounts its shows, but today nature was closed off behind thick drapes. That set the tone for a men's collection that Christopher Bailey labeled Classically Bohemian. A little crumpled in his antiqued linens and bookish in his glasses, the Burberry Man had clearly expanded his mind since last season. He wore paisley and floral shirts inspired by quilts from Durham (near to Bailey's birthplace in East Yorkshire), and draped himself in ponchos or huge luxuriantly fringed shawls. Maybe he'd just got back from a trip to India, because he was also dressed in mirror-embroidered shirts, trousers, and a coat. The only thing missing was a cloud of incense. "Decorative and free" was the way Bailey described the mood. There was glamour in leopard-printed shearling, camo to add more visual texture, and high-pile fabrics in dense, dark tones. The designer liked the idea of classics thrown off-kilter by Bohemia, but if that suggests edge, it shouldn't. Instead, the collection had a subtle, rich flow, ably assisted by Clare Maguire, a singer Bailey came across on SoundCloud. Opening with Marc Bolan's "Cosmic Dancer" and closing with "House of the Rising Sun" while a glitter storm raged, her performance was considerably more full-blooded than the singer-songwriters who usually soundtrack Burberry's shows. That extra oomph rubbed off on the collection.
