As the sun beat down on Kensington Gardens yesterday, Christopher Bailey at Burberry Prorsum sent out a spring/summer 2016 menswear collection that acted as a love letter to the gentle charm of an English summer.

Names such as Samuel L Jackson (pictured right) Chiwetel Ejiofor and Suki Waterhouse looked on and a 24-piece orchestra accompanied British musician Rhodes’s live set for the show.

The designer, who interspersed the men’s collection with pieces from the spring/summer 2016 precollection for women, entitled the show “Strait-Laced” as a nod to the abundance of that most feminine of materials which made up the shirting, suits, vest tops and even trenchcoats of the collection.

“It was about a contrast between the very formal and traditional and the more whimsical,” Bailey said. “I wanted to take something structured and twist it slightly to give it a sense of poetry. For example, you might have a tie with a very classic tie pin, but then we decorated the pins with bugs and leaves for a light-hearted feel.” This juxtaposition was keenly felt in the contrast between strict, sharp suiting in sombre shades and cashmere tracksuit trousers worn with fragile, feminine lace. The effect was the sartorial equivalent of clotted cream teas and strawberries on the lawn.

The Britishness is deliberate. “All the lace was made in the UK by British mills,” Bailey said. “We’re naturally impregnated with Englishness given our heritage, so it’s great to support the country’s manufacturing industry.”