Christopher Bailey chose the Makers House workshop in Soho for the Burberry Autumn/Winter 2016 runway. Loyal to their heritage, Burberry took inspiration from the novel Orlando by Virginia Woolf to immerse their guests in another era. The brand’s entry into the “see-now buy-now” model is now a fait accompli, but this was also the occasion to get back in touch with the most iconic pieces in the Burberry wardrobe – notably an army beige-colored trenchcoat that many thought lost for good.
With falling shoulders that are a tad debased, the 2016 trenchcoat silhouette clearly plays with androgynous ambiguity. This ambiguity is worked best by the one who first brought the trenchcoat into style – Marlene Dietricht. Always playing with style beyond gender, she was one of the first to adopt pants and also popularized the trenchcoat. Tempering femininity with a number of detachments, this demi-couture piece is today at the height of its metamorphosis. By returning to a wide and unbelted cut, the piece appears modernized, collarless, and simply cooler. With a criss-cross front, the legendary tartan lining is far from boring: on the contrary, the trenchcoat’s returns to its origins in a ravishing military shade of beige. Going down the runway in the Soho building that once housed Foyles, London’s fienst secondhand bookshop, Christopher Bailey ponders: “This place is a reflection of the collection. Buildings remain but their inhabitants change.” Just like the trenchcoat.
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