BURBERRY PRORSUM:LUXURY VAMP

The Milan traffic got the better of me at Burberry. After abandoning the car and sprinting to the venue in Alaia wedges (I can clock up a surprising speed on those things) I had to watch the Buberry Prorsum show from the back near photographers pit. From this distance it looked like a slick reworking of the body-con looks of the eighties. Sex-bot models wore form-fitting mini dresses in ruched chiffon and silk jersey. There was also a vamped up version of the obligatory trench in blue neopre

 

n with laced up seams. I went for another look in the showroom the next day and up close the workmanship that went into the collection was impressive. These are not a simple, understated clothes. The skin tight dresses were made from intricately twisted and gathered chiffon or jersey. There were skirts, jackets and a dresses fashioned from luscious, strokeable fringes of silk thread that felt as soft as chinchilla - a good alternative to fur for animal lovers. Trenches came in supple, white perforated leather and party dresses were covered in ribbons stitched into rosettes or encrusted with beads. It certainly injected an ambitious level of luxury into the Burberry brand although some of the highly worked pieces felt too heavy for a summer collection.