Burberry's Bag-and-Blanket Bonanza

Image via Burberry

Bailey’s Burberry Bag-and-Blanket Bonanza Beckons Blogger’s Burgeoning Besoin to Burn Bank Budget

A rather wordy title to explain my desire to spend unreasonable dosh on Burberry Prorsum’s latest collection. Further wordiness will ensue.

(Yes, I cheated by using French. Sue me. Or don’t. I’d rather keep the money for abovementioned purpose.)

HI! HAPPY NEW YEAR! IT IS US, THOSE THREE MINIONS OF TARDIS, GOD OF GENERAL LATENESS. We are mega sorry for the radio silence. The Christmas period has not been kind to us. 2014, lots of hopes and dreams and exciting projects, blah blah. You've heard it from so many mouths we might as well skip to the good bit.

There’s a lot to talk about. I will talk about the clothes in due time, but first I wanted to spare a moment for the beautiful people gracing both the runway and the front row of Burberry Prorsum's latest offering at London Collections: Men. That little sectioned series of seats reserved for the sundry celebrity bums invited to the show, from XY-Goldilocks Jamie Campbell Bower, one of the faces of the brand’s Spring-Summer 2014 campaign and his predecessor George Craig, to Paloma Faith in her pastel get-up, the glorious Tinie Tempah, Dermot O’Leary, Saturday-night extraordinaire, and a bevvy of Asian stars whose names, or existence, I was (and still am) not aware of. Not racist, just European.

Great choice of models too; chiselled in body, but mostly in cheekbones. For some, a sign of malnourishment (although, not really – for real manorexia, refer to Saint Laurent Paris). To others, an invitation for inappropriate finger-tracing. I was almost distracted from the clothes – almost, but not quite. Unfortunately, I have still not subscribed to normal human priority. Blankets over boys. Boys-in-blankets, on the other hand, are a different matter entirely.

Fashion magazines and their digital counterparts have predicted that the blanket-scarf hybrid, draped around necks and/or over suits, would be the street-style blip of the season. Their forecast has been suitably validated, but seeing it done by one of the most important British brands, in its insouciant, French-painterly interpretation, has elevated the trend from eye-roll-inducing gimmick to luxury humblebrag. I, for one, cannot wait to test out the trick. Ownership of one of the actual scarves would not go amiss. I’m not too picky – either the revised Burberry-check iterations draped over the models for the finale, or the leaf-printed versions (beautifully matched with their coat-twins) will do. My middle name is ‘Shameless’.

The styling choices for this collection were equally intriguing in that, despite its autumnal nature, Bailey chose to send the models down the runway in mesh vests and open coats tucked behind pocketed hands. A quirk that has distanced the lineup from its more done-up precursors. It was, nevertheless, still rooted in Burberry’s tradition of luxury and heritage, as demonstrated by its skyscape-adorned bags. A stroke of genius, if you will.

With a hint of Pendleton via the blanket scarves and woven bags, and pneumonia (I kid – I am most definitely a fan of the relaxed vibe), Burberry Prorsum has managed to encapsulate an aesthetic I never thought I could sum up, up to this point.

Also, cheekbones.

Plenty more favourite looks over on my Tumblr, if you favour an afternoon look-see.