Discover Yahoo! With Your Friends

Explore news, videos, and much more based on what your friends are reading and watching. Publish your own activity and retain full control.

To get started, first

YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Burberry's Sartorial New Gentility

    By Godfrey Deeny | Fashion Wire Daily – Sat, Jan 14, 2012

    The true test of a design champion, like their equivalent in sports, is the ability to consistently turn out hit collections, fashion statements that both set a stylistic agenda and sell large numbers of clothes. On that basis, there are few greater heavyweight champions in men's fashion today than Christopher Bailey, the chief creative officer of Burberry, whose latest senior Prorsum collection for the U.K. house, staged Saturday, Jan. 14, in Milan, was a tellingly clever and cool visual discourse on a new sort of gentile chic.

    "I liked the idea of familiar clothes, but playing with the proportioned with a certain contradiction. We are all hankering after something that is more gentile and calm, and a little more polite too," explained Bailey post show.

    The clothes themselves were all about re-inventing the past - celebrating British tailoring, just as Bailey subverted it; though not in any aggressive way. Take his choice of elegant gloves or brogues - all classically cut yet all covered in studs. The same pattern was repeated in the giant bank of lights positioned above the photographers pit in the custom-made, and heated, tent in the same palazzo on Corso Venezia, where Napoleon once wintered in Milan more than two centuries ago.

    Best of all was Bailey's ability to contrast silhouettes and fabrics with a certain bravura. Take his elaborate Mod parkas, rather recognizable all-weather Limey style, but subverted and enhanced with Bailey's bold choice of dramatic horizontal stripe panels. Or his micro blouson in padded nylon, worn over the sheerest of lean suits.

    And just when the designer began to verge too much toward the formulaic, Bailey wowed with a excellent set of Alpine apres-ski sweaters, whose erratic patterns and crafty twisting necklines made them that rare thing in menswear - truly original garments.

    "In my head I was thinking of a city smog, that became foggy, and then rain, and finally at the end there was snow," said Bailey.

    Explore Related Content

    1 - 4 of 4
    prevnext
    1. Models during the finale of the Burberry London 2012 Autumn/Winter collection catwalk show in February

      Models during the finale of the Burberry …

    2. Free UK banking may have to end - BoE Bailey

      Free UK banking may have to end - BoE …

      Reuters

    3. Burberry advertised globally that Humphrey Bogart wore a Burberry trench coat in the final scene of "Casablanca"

      Burberry advertised globally that Humphrey …

    4. A man walks past a Burberry store on New Bond Street in central London

      A man walks past a Burberry store on …

     

    2 comments

    • Forget it.
      Forget it.  •  4 mths ago
      "Gentile chic"? Methinks the author meant to say "genteel"...otherwise that phrase is implying that Burberry's new "chic" is limited to non-Jews.
    • Marilee
      Marilee  •  4 mths ago
      Children do all of Yahoo's writing and editing.
     Post a comment
    [ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['Titanic', 7]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/titanic-anniversary/', ' ', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/b/4e/b4e5ad9f00b5dfeeec2226d53e173569.jpeg', '550', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]
    [ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

    News For You

    Loading...