Burberry unveils SS21 pre-collection, check is key

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 24, 2020

The coronavirus crisis may have disrupted the usual seasonal pattern for high-end collections, but a number of luxury labels are sticking as close to a regular schedule as possible. And on Friday, Burberry unveiled its SS21 pre-collection lookbook.

Designed by Riccardo Tisci, it’s “a celebration of the Burberry community, inspired by the outdoors and founder Thomas Burberry’s legacy of discovery”.

Each model was shot in a look from the collection outside their home, in England.

“This season, I wanted to draw upon the familiar, the things that bring us comfort and strength,” Tisci said. “I returned to what first inspired me in the Burberry heritage house codes, like the check, iconic stripes and unicorn emblems, but revisited them with a new perspective, incorporating elements of both sophistication and street through the lens of the outdoors”. 

He also wove roses as a print throughout the collection to celebrate England’s “beautiful antique gardens”. And there’s a new “graffitied love print, celebrating the power of connection”.

Key items include trench coats and barn jackets, pleated skirts and corset dresses. Tailoring has been “reinforced with relaxed proportions and new Burberry hallmarks”. And the signature Pocket Bag is continued in Horseferry-print canvas.

For women, the house check is the star across a variety of items. And trench coats feature logo prints and oversized bellow pockets, and the car coat is reworked in organic cotton gabardine with bellow pockets and a detachable warmer. New motifs include the graffitied love print on a vintage check shirt, and varsity graphic appliqués on a striped wool barn jacket and satin bomber, styled with wool gabardine longline shorts.

For men, seasonal checks are a major focus of casual and formal pieces and are used to “energise” tailoring, while the Westminster heritage trench comes with a reconstructed hoodie with a scarf detail and drawcord shorts. Barn jackets are reworked with diamond quilting and stripes or varsity graphic appliqués – over Japanese raw denim straight-leg jeans and cashmere trackpants.

In accessories, there’s an evolution of Burberry signatures. The new Pocket tote comes in Horseferry-print canvas, and the Soft Cube – an elongated take on the Cube – comes in quilted lambskin.