Three years into his Burberry tenure, Riccardo Tisci is leaving his creative process to instinct. If it was clear in last month’s men’s show, the pre-spring collection he released this week only confirmed the validity of his new (old) direction. Take the kilt-and-jumper men’s look adorned in spherical graphics, the very embodiment of the polished punk and “trophy tops” he pioneered at Givenchy. Or how about the luxury nomad vibes of the women’s outfit that wrapped a matching striped kilt and jumper in a checked scarf?
Tisci devotees will delight in those black utility jumpsuits with white top-stitching and star motifs. They will swoon over the knitted geo pattern dresses worn with Roman sandals. “This collection is about codes and creativity,” the designer said in a statement, perhaps hiding his motivation in plain sight. “It has always,” he continued, “been important to me to encourage freedom of expression and to blur the line between traditional notions of masculinity and femininity.”
As expected, his men’s show in June sent shockwaves through social media. After years of adapting his vision to the British class codes he has been talking about throughout his Burberry residency, what does his return to his most core personal aesthetic mean? “The world is going to restart,” Tisci told me at the time, referring to the end of lockdown. “And for me, this was fresh. It’s what we want today: expression, freedom, physical freedom; to be ourselves. It’s punk in a positive way: breaking the boundaries.”
While Tisci’s defiance may now lie in breaking the constraints of an aesthetic he previously felt as if he had to live up to, his point remains the same: After the pandemic, there’s no time for pretense. We have to live and work authentically. In the process, his change of direction—the direct splicing of his own codes with those of Burberry—feels like a natural resolve. In June, Marco Gobbetti, the CEO who joined him at Burberry three years ago, announced he would leave his position for a new one at Salvatore Ferragamo later this year. In every way, it carves out a time for change for Tisci, who now has a fresh path ahead of him.
