Originally scheduled for September 17, during London’s Spring/Summer 2023 collection week, the Burberry show has been canceled to observe the ten days of national mourning following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, which occurred on Thursday September 8. It was only a postponement for designer Riccardo Tisci, who presented his new score on Monday, September 26, in London, as Paris kicked off its fashion week.
It was in a large hangar, decorated in the colors of the brand – a lot of beige, a few hints of gray –, in the suburbs of the city, that a little more than 300 guests gathered in front of the London Contemporary Orchestra and soprano singer Nadine Sierra. The friends of the house and of the Italian designer are there: rappers Kanye West and Stormy Z, singer Erykah Badu and American actress Gillian Anderson… But, to the applause of young audiences in search of celebrities to photograph posted at the end of the parade, it is undoubtedly the Thai actor and singer Bright who wins.
This season, Riccardo Tisci has turned to the shores of his adopted country for inspiration. “The English beaches are very interesting! They often border a city, so the dressing room adapts, you can see people dressed for the evening », explains the designer, at the helm of the British brand’s style for four years. On the catwalk, this gives unexpected mixes, especially if we imagine them worn on the sand: wide denim pants with a rhinestone bra, transparent tulle dresses associated with denim jackets tied at the waist or even trench coats whose back is entirely worked in terry towel.
Youth and sensuality
Elements of lingerie also punctuate this wardrobe: crinkled babydolls, in silk and lace, are associated with richly worked bras. There is also a punk dimension in some silhouettes, those for men in particular, through printed T-shirts with gothic writing, baggy pants falling low on the hips or even black fishnet tops.
The skin is at the center of attention, with dresses very close to the body in perforated mesh or bare shoulders. “We are exploring a new sensuality – a certain awareness of the body. I was inspired by youth, those who are proud of who they are, of their identity. It’s modern, it’s fair, and it’s Burberry”, insists the creator. Dashes of humor placed here and there hold the attention: earrings, sunglasses or flip-flops in the shape of a shark, a shoe clip like a beach buoy valve, bags worn over the arms like the armbands that we put on children…
The latest silhouettes, worn by models who have long been friends of the designer – the Russian Irina Shayk or the Italian Mariacarla Boscono – in total silence, impose a different tempo: long black velvet evening dresses revealing the shoulders and accentuating the neckline. On August 30, Women’s Wear Daily, an American daily newspaper specializing in the luxury and fashion sector, suggested that Riccardo Tisci, whose contract comes to an end in early 2023, would be on the way out. From there to see in these last dark and grandiloquent passages a goodbye…