“I like when things don’t feel perfect. I like things to feel cool, youthful.” Daniel Lee was responding to a question about the surprising glimpses of material tarnish, rumple and smudge we saw in this collection from a brand that is typically Britain’s most shiny, smooth and polished. His answer also related to tonight’s runway debut from Central Cee, who came sagging past in hard Shepherd’s Bush style. But with respect to the ends, by far the coolest and most youthful subversion of Burberry’s customary self-possession and polish was delivered by an 85-year-old who sat in the front row: Celia Birtwell.
“She’s the epitome of British fashion,” Lee observed. Birtwell did much to define the visual texture of fashion in the UK and beyond between the late ’60s and early ’70s when she acted as the textile-designer John to her then-husband Ossie Clark’s fashion-designer Paul. Appropriately, this show was held at Chelsea College of Arts, where Birtwell once taught. Backstage, Lee said they first met in May, adding: “I’ve never really collaborated with anyone on a collection before. You know, it’s difficult—you find it when you find it.” He added: “Everybody loves Celia… Those prints are incredible. They feel timeless. Whether you wear them today or you wore them in the ’70s, they’re amazing.”
Apart from a small collaborative cameo at Valentino fall 2015—which, anyway, was completely overshadowed by the runway return of Hansel and Zoolander—this was my first glimpse of Birtwell’s work on the runway: it was marvelous. Lee said he was working to transmit a broadly precise range of characters in this collection, and one seemed especially specific: the blonde-mopped, big-glasses-wearing male model in look 31 wore a Birtwell face print whose punchy colors Lee said had informed the collection much more broadly. The flattened style of Birtwell’s facial illustration also recalled 1985’s Painted Lady, just one of the many portraits of her created by the late David Hockney—and a painting that was the cover star of that year’s December issue of Vogue France.
Lee’s embrace of Birtwell tonight followed the precedent laid down by his Burberry forebear Christopher Bailey, whose fealty to the personal style and color sense of Hockney birthed two wonderful Burberry shows. In tonight’s glaring white fashion-space blank canvas, Birtwell’s introduction similarly empowered Lee to loosen the hyper-controlled gabardine grip that has governed his last few seasons, even as his house has tightened its commercial ship.
That’s not to say this collection wasn’t remorselessly merchandised, because it was. But a focus that for the last few seasons has felt so fixedly trench, trench, trench became infinitely more expansive and confident. Much of that confidence was transmitted by the rumple noted at the top: shirting and shorts in taffeta embroidered with Birtwell florals, taffeta trenches with puffed hems, and denim in washed pink, trench taupe and black all had a roughened and touched texture to the eye. The white edging of vulcanized sneaker soles was similarly smudged.
Together Lee and Birtwell reimagined the Burberry check as a trellis across which her florals flourished in many richly colored arrangements, only later—along with her doodled faces—to be given 3D form as badges and beaded embellishments. All this growth led to some wonderfully satisfying moments of color: the swimming-pool blue of look 31’s parka, or the sunset orange of look 47’s blueberry-embellished trench. It also led to a much broader approach to reference that saw ’70s-reminiscent strapped clogs (this was a great shoe show) worn below technical wear and modern climbing moccasins worn south of chiffon gowns.
Said Lee: “I think when we’re buying a luxury garment, a luxury product, we’re all searching for something that we have an emotional attachment to. You know, it’s not a necessity product: it’s an emotional thing. For me, the ruffles and the imperfections, they ultimately make things feel human.” Today Birtwell seemed to act as a lightning rod that channeled Lee’s creative zing in a new and fruitful direction.