Parade Burberry spring/summer 2024 this was without a doubt the most anticipated show London Fashion Week: The most popular event that everyone is talking about, which can have special guests and tickets to attend are truly exclusive. The audience slowly gathered Highbury Fieldsone of the most sought-after green oases in London, convinced of the need to visit a repeat of last year’s exhibition in Kennington Parkin the southern part of the city.
The location is the same: again a temporary tent surrounded by park benches on which branded blankets are laid out. Burberry. It seems like a very familiar place, but given the hype around Burberry lately, it looked more like Genghis Khan’s war tent. There are more than 650 guests inside, including Hollywood stars and uniformed zoo employees. The Hollywood powerhouse, as usual, proved its power with an all-star British cast: Kano, Jason Statham, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Kylie Minogue (with British passport, for reference), Jodie Comer, Michael Ward, Jourdan Dunn, Naomi Campbell, Rachel Weisz, Skepta, Bukayo Saka AND Taylor Zakhar Perez who, of course, is not British, but managed to team up with a fictional British prince in the latest teen movie. Red, white and blue blood. Eberechi Ezefootball player Crystal Palace and the England team, he was visibly excited before the performance: “I’m glad to be here. I saw it all online last year, but now I want to enjoy it in person… I can’t wait.”
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Burna Boy, Kylie Minogue and Barry Keoghan front row at the Burberry spring/summer ’24 show
Everything seemed to point to a celebration of the proverbial British eccentricity, given the big tent, the fire and the oddities of Middle England: Burberry as a symbol of luxury in a divided United Kingdom, full of overwhelming oddities and enduring Anglo-Saxon rituals.
Never. Music Dean Blunt gave the starting signal. The backdrop of the first look was a dog and a spray can: obviously a trench coat, although different from the classic Burberry of 160 years ago, we admired the original remix. The panels were taken apart and transformed into something almost aggressive, low-rise, precise and innovative, but still Burberry. Nothing to do with Little Britain.
Collection of 55 looks Daniel Lee this eliminated the layers. More modern military style trench coats with more exposed skin every time you go out. Shirts unbutton over the sculpted chests of iron-jawed models. Sagging pants, like old girlish ribbons. Chain motifs are laser cut to reveal the skin underneath. We weren’t at the smoky rave at Burberry’s country estate.
Was this Burberry…sexy?
Burberry changes direction with its powerful cut and 80s-inspired boat necklines. A brand that was previously inspired by the most colorful and strange British culture. Britain goes by many names, but in these troubled times, “sexy” is not one of them. It’s easier to find a doctor to make a house call than something sexual. Dirty: yes. Sexy: no. It’s a rare commodity that belongs in Paris Fashion Week’s “less is more” or “the mouths and hairstyles of Milan.” Not in London. And yet Burberry manages to be sexy without being vulgar.
Despite the exposed skin and trench coats hanging off the elbows, the fit is perfect: sexy doesn’t have to be skintight. With faded shirts and baggy trousers, Burberry seems made for Londoners of the past or future; a mixture of retro and science fiction, reminiscent of Gattaca or Blade Runner on Old Bond Street. This piece is sexy, but also familiar and wearable.
Burberry is changing up its look with floral femme fatale dresses, vests with nothing underneath and minimalist bags, maybe they want to turn the Shield bag into an It bag.
Burberry’s official show notes reveal very little information: “DANIEL LEE’S BURBERRY EXPRESSION CONTINUES WITH THE SUMMER COLLECTION,” it reads in capital letters, with some technical information about the clothes. Unlike his Kennington debut, the ever-elusive creative director avoided press questions before and after the show. We had to find meaning.
Overall an accessible event at the end of the show. The clothes gradually became hotter, smoother and sexier until the final look arrived: a shirtless model with very low-cut pants and a huge logo buckle.Mounted knight‘ from Burberry. It is symbolic of the brand’s new direction, using the Latin word “prosum” to say that we must move “forward.” Burberry is looking to the future and what it might represent in a country that is going through so much change.
Latest look at the Burberry show
Like it or not, Burberry is a symbol of the United Kingdom. “Burberry reminds me of England,” the captain told GQ. Tottenham Son Heung-min during the parade. “It’s reminiscent of the British gentleman: checkered patterns, classic and practical.” In the UK’s most turbulent era, there is a need for leadership and training. At the end of the show, the idea of being a sexy, confident nation didn’t seem at all alien to those in attendance. Burberry, with its understatedly sensual clothing and occasional flashes of bare skin, reminded us that for a time in the early 2000s, the British were also a sexy, confident nation; trousers were low-cut, Britain knew its stuff, and nightclubs were open to romance, the allure of seduction and asymmetrical cutouts. Of course, Britain is still a place of innate weirdness and self-deprecation. It’s still home to charming, quirky people and enduring Anglo-Saxon rituals, but London Fashion Week’s main event reminded us just how sexy they can be. At Burberry UK, it might be possible to be all of these things at once.
Article originally published on GQ UK.