‘I like things that are a little more gentle, with a bit of romance and nostalgia,’ explains Burberry Design Director Christopher Bailey. ‘I had a very clear vision of these Garden Girls.’

Christopher Bailey's Burberry Coast

If there is one high-end fashion label that can weather the storm, this is it

by GUY BABINEAU

Canada’s first stand-alone Burberry store opened without fanfare in Vancouver last November. The world has had the financial rug pulled out from under it, and luxury brands are poised to teeter and crash. Maybe we can learn a thing or two from a company whose reputation for quality has seen it through two world wars and the Great Depression, not to mention most of Queen Victoria’s reign.

The stunning store is smartly situated on the street level of the Shangri-La, that shiny new obelisk of swank hotel rooms and multimillion-dollar condos towering above the city skyline at 1101 Alberni St. (the store runs the length of Thurlow from West Georgia to Alberni, so you can enter on the Georgia side, too). Burberry knows its clientele, and as they say, location is everything. I went inside to look at all the beautiful things I can’t afford to buy – but would if I could – licking my lips like Oliver Twist.

If there is one high-end fashion label that can weather the storm, this is it. Burberry invented gabardine, introduced the trenchcoat, and is as synonymous with British identity and staying power as HP Sauce, Coronation Street and Rolls Royce. But at one point the company was perceived to be out of step with the times, as risible as, say, Spam or Carry On movies. That changed radically in 2001 when Christopher Bailey came onboard as Design Director. All of a sudden Burberry was young, hot and hip. Sales shot through the roof.

“I really wanted the new [Vancouver] store to capture the energy of the brand, to reflect the heritage of the brand, but with a real modern point of view,” Bailey writes from London in an e-mail interview.

Bailey, who is only 35, spent several years as the Womenswear Designer at Donna Karan, and several more working with Tom Ford at Gucci as the Senior Designer of Womenswear. When he was asked to join Burberry, he welcomed the challenge. “The idea of having the possibility to evolve, develop and implement the design and creative direction of such a stoic British house known globally is an amazing dream role and a responsibility that I respect enormously.”

Bailey oversees everything from the clothing, footwear and accessories collections, to advertising campaigns, to store designs around the world. He is no diva, though, and credits the people he works with. “I have to say that I am most proud to be able to build a team of incredible people who have the same level of passion and dedication, and who are great fun to be with!”

GQ recently named Bailey Designer of the Year. The 2008 British Fashion Awards recognized him as Best Menswear Designer for the second consecutive year. In 2005, he was honoured with the BFA Award for Best Designer. It’s obvious why when you see the men’s and women’s Spring/Summer 2009 collections he designed for Burberry Prorsum, which showed at Milan Fashion Week. In Vancouver, a city famous for rain and gardens, the theme and palette couldn’t be more appropriate.

“I had been spending a lot of time in my garden in Yorkshire – I love being outside and the idea was really about going back to the Earth and our foundations. I like things that are a little more gentle, with a bit of romance and nostalgia. I had a very clear vision of these Garden Girls splashing around outside in their raincoats, which really reflects our outerwear heritage.”

His ethereal, elegantly rumpled young women sauntered sweetly down the runway wearing flowing, knee-high, prairie-style dresses, oversized trenchcoats, comfy cardigans, floppy hats and chunky bracelets and necklaces, played out in hues of grey, taupe, moss green, tan and metallic gold.

For the men’s collection, Bailey was inspired by the seaside garden of the late filmmaker Derek Jarman, whose movies include Caravaggio, Edward II and Wittgenstein. The garden is poignantly located next to a nuclear reactor and served as the setting for his film The Garden. A tireless gay and AIDS activist, Jarman died of HIV-related complications in 1994. The collection, called Crumpled Classics, is softly sensual with a lived-in look, featuring generously draped jackets, pants, shirts and sweaters in shades of mustard, muted blue, olive green and grey.

There is a resilience and ease about both of the collections that speaks to our troubled times, and the language is poetry. This isn’t the England of the Tudors, Elizabeth I or Jane Austen, all done to death in recent pop culture. Here we have flowers sprouting amidst rations and air raid sirens.

All I can say to Mr. Bailey is, “Please, sir, I want some more.” mv