“It takes time to find your identity when you come to work for a company which is so powerful and so big and represents so much about a country—especially a country
like England, which has so much style," says Tisci, seriously. “So I think this is the collection that’s firstly the most Burberry, and secondly the most me.” He pauses. "It's also emotional because of what’s happening in the world and in life.”
Had the models wearing sleeveless puffer rugby shirts over trench coats not been walking on a high fashion runway they might have looked like schoolboys at a bus stop, cupping covert cigarettes behind their hands. Bright red duffle coats with asymmetric leather fastenings and oversized leather pouches, designed to look like Burberry-branded cereal boxes, took the British youth inspiration into a more playful space, while bonnet-style hoods, made of contrast shirt collars and yokes, bought to mind kids pulling off uniforms in a hurry to get to football practice.
Some of the more intriguing looks in the collection played on the outerwear pieces for which Burberry is best known. Classic waxed jackets, quilted car coats, and trenches were worn with skirts in matching fabrics, and the resulting silhouettes were both edgy and appealing. “Thomas Burberry did some amazing things, but then it was all about the trench, the car coat, the Harrington, and the check. Fantastic. Beautiful. But you need to explore,” Tisci tells me. “People have changed. The young don’t care about sexuality, or being closed in a box—being recognised as a man, woman, she or he.”
Tisci's mission to attract a younger audience with this fluid approach to the classics squares with the launch of his new Burberry and Supreme collaborative collection, which was met with snaking queues outside Burberry's London stores earlier this week. The collection is Tisci's first collaborative effort since he partnered with Vivienne Westwood during his first few months at Burberry in 2018.