THE NEW BURBERRY

After 17 years of illustrious leadership under Christopher Bailey, the storied 163-year-old house ushers in a new era with Riccardo Tisci. He had spent 12 successful years modernising Givenchy as creative director, fusing streetwear and couture edged with dark romanticism, which left many wondering if that meant a total disruption to Burberry. After all, the heritage house is emblematic of British culture.

For SS19, Tisci unveiled Kingdom, his 134-look debut for both men and women, at a new show venue in Vauxhall, South West London. It was a dark space until curtains on the roof were pulled back to reveal clear blue skies, illuminating the runways with British sunshine — a metaphor for Burberry’s new dawn?

But it unveiled a new Tisci too, with his reinvention of dress codes injected with his signature subversive twist. The show opened with Tisci’s take on Burberry’s signature trench coat. Sans the utilitarian trench belt and free of fussy embellishments, it was worn tightly cinched with a broad belt in chocolate brown, evoking sensuality with its refined silhouette in precise tailoring that would define his modern daywear for the bourgeois Burberry woman.

A celebration of British eccentricity and diversity (“the Queen and punk, the skinheads, the Victorians, the freaks”), the collection includes a youthful stretch of lacy slips, graphic T-shirts and zip-up miniskirts, introduced by a model with a peroxide pixie cut, fishnet and lug-soled Mary Janes.

“The thing that excites me most about Burberry is how inclusive it is — it appeals to everyone no matter their age, their social standing, their race, their gender,” shared Tisci.