Burberry’s fashion BREXIT
. . . or how it’s defied snooty French fashion giants with a collection you DON’T have to wait six months to buy
Of all the shows in london fashion Week, one is more notoriously difficult to access than all the rest put together. Tonight, at 7.30pm, only the most searingly fashionable and wellconnected will secure a seat at the Burberry collection.
Yet while those lucky souls lap up the cool, aristocratic glamour of the landmark collection (Burberry’s new ‘face’ is lady Jean Campbell, 19-yearold daughter of the 7th Earl Cawdor), there will also be a whiff of revolution in the air — one that’s causing waves of foot-stamping fashion fury across the channel.
for the British label has broken with fashion tradition, and stuck two very defiant fingers up to the traditionalists in Paris.
Not only will Burberry combine its men’s and women’s collections, it will show ‘seasonless’ clothes that can be worn throughout the year in a See Now, Buy Now catwalk show.
So, from the moment Burberry’s chief creative officer Christopher Bailey takes his final bow at 8pm, every item will be available in store and on the website.
The Burberry flagship store in Regent Street will stay open late tonight for fashionistas willing to shell out thousands on a new bridle bag or jacket modelled on an early 19th-century military coat.
WhY is it so significant? In fashion terms, it doesn’t get any bigger. Burberry has effectively sounded the death-knell for ‘The Season’, and, in fine British tradition, staged its own fashion Brexit — from decades of European dictatorship.
for the past 100 years, french fashion houses have determined how and when we buy designer fashion. The fashion year is traditionally divided into two seasons — autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer. In february, you would see winter’s clothes, and in September, you have a peek at next year’s spring/ summer’s designs. as customers, we then wait up to six months before catwalk designs are in stores.
In the past, this might have made sense — but in the modern world it now seems laughably out of date and commercially nonsensical.
The moment designer collections appear on a catwalk, they are shared on social media and copied by the high Street before the originals even get to the shops.
The See Now Buy Now move has been described as fashion’s ‘Uber moment’ — in reference to the hugely popular car service that’s broken the monopoly of black cabs — opening up the world of fashion for everyone to see, shop and enjoy immediately.
This clever move by Burberry will delight customers. The luxury fashion market has suffered in the past few years, with the decline in consumer spending and the faltering Chinese economy. Companies such as Burberry have experienced falling sales. Earlier this year it announced £100 million in cost-cutting. Yet many luxury fashion houses still can’t see the need to move with the times.
When asked what he thought of the change, Chanel and fendi designer Karl lagerfeld said in typically dramatic fashion: ‘It’s a mess! The reality is that you have to give people time to make their choice, to order the clothes or handbags, and to produce them beautifully so editors photograph them. If not, it’s the end of everything.’
Meanwhile, Pascal Morand, executive president of the federation francaise de la Couture, du Pret-aPorter des Couturiers et des Createurs de Mode (yes, that really is his title), claimed it contradicted ‘a designer’s psychology and way of working’.
The snippy reaction surprised no one more than Burberry’s Christopher Bailey, the down-to-earth 45-year-old Yorkshireman responsible for much of Burberry’s recent innovation.
‘It wasn’t supposed to be a ground shift. Or even that radical,’ Bailey said after announcing the break with tradition. ‘But we’re in an industry that’s supposed to embrace change.’
No doubt, it was music to the ears of a government with a new fashionloving Prime Minister at the helm, which realises just how important an innovative and healthy fashion industry is to the British economy.
New figures released in June show that the British fashion industry’s worth to the British economy is £28billion and has been growing faster than the UK GDP.
and employment in the fashion industry has increased from 790,000 to 880,000. Indeed, Theresa May threw open the doors of No10 last week to welcome industry figureheads and encourage innovation.
SOME other retailers are waking up to what a new generation of fashionhungry women want. and it’s not a six-month wait for a frock.
U.S. fashion designers Tom ford, Ralph lauren and Tommy hilfiger have jumped on the See Now Buy Now fashion wagon.
‘In a world that’s become increasingly immediate, the current way of showing a collection four months before it is available to customers is an antiquated idea and one that no longer makes sense,’ ford said before his New York show. ‘Our customers today want a collection that’s immediately available.’
You can see the effects on the high Street with Jigsaw, hobbs and John lewis launching ‘seasonless’ collections. and M&S launched its Big Easy collection of 24 pieces designed to be worn all year round — from caramel leather jackets (£249) to relaxed autograph blouses (£35) that look like silk but can be bunged in the wash with everything else.
So even if we can’t afford £1,395 for a monogrammed Burberry trench coat, we can all benefit from clothes that make perfect sense for British weather, launched when we want them — without a frustrating wait for a designer’s ‘psychology’.