Burberry Prorsum Fall 2012

Call it the Downton Abbey effect, but a whiff of Edwardian tweedy country elegance hung within the air at Burberry Prorsum-and never just within the bespectacled dandy looks of will.i.am (sitting front row with War Horse’s Jeremy Irvine, My Week with Marilyn’s Eddie Redmayne, and a flotilla of London’s It girls). Burberry is naturally a heritage brand, founded in 1856, and just this sort of emporium that Lord Grantham could have been expected to repair  to for a hearty coat to give protection to him from the London fog and the chilliness of the grouse moors.

Christopher Bailey, however, mixed upstairs and downstairs with a modern spirit of democracy-from his model’s tweedy urchin caps to their dainty lace-up ankle boots.

There was an emphasis at the hips, with giant bellows pockets flanking the fronts of jackets and skirts, or a broad peplum flounce that each one added volume below the waist. This created a silhouette that suggested the hourglass figure of the Victorians-or a brisk contemporary reworking of Christian Dior’s nip-waisted New Look silhouette. Ruched velvet ribbon belts, flourished with a bow, cinched those waistlines tighter still.

There was more “street couture” within the thick woolen lace, and in flounces that ruffled down front of skirts-but a golden zipper used to edge them brought them smack into the twenty-first century.

There was Victoriana too within the shrunken jackets in corduroy or velvet, the leg-of-mutton–sleeved white cotton shirts, the darkly swirling floral Arts and Crafts prints, and inside the strips of velvet that edged a peplum ruffle-in addition to accessories akin to the doctor’s bags that fastened with pale gold owl-, dog-, or goose-head clasps, and the whimsical umbrella handles carved with similar animal motifs.

But the shapely down quilted puffer coats; the sweaters and tees with sweetly childish intarsia or embroidery of sparrows and owls; and the metallic glitter-fringe fabric used for pencil skirts and lean dresses added a thoroughly modern edge.

And to focus all eyes on a forest of these delightful umbrellas, Bailey arranged for Burberry’s own rainstorm to fall at the clear plastic roof of the show marquee for the finale-and for clear plastic raindrops to tumble at the runway.

For additional information and a whole profile on Christopher Bailey, visit Voguepedia.com.