Burberry Prorsum Resort 2013 Collection

Yes, it rains in the U.K., and as everyone around the globe knows, Burberry’s exponentially increasing fortunes spring from Christopher Bailey’s manipulation of trench-coat iconography. 

So it’s hard to criticize a formula that is clearly successful, absolutely recognizable, and unwavering in its continuity. Bailey tagged his resort collection “sensual strictness,” but compared to other pre-collections, there’s actually more of a casual air about the reworkings of house tailoring, like his taupe-and-ivory seersucker pantsuit, paper-bag–waisted trousers coordinated with “Prorsum” print T-shirts, knits with swooped necklines, and the house’s signature shrunken motorcycle jackets. At the young end, there are cute printed shorts (actually boxers, adapted from the men’s collection) and at the slightly more mature end, pencil skirts. The trench, though, gets its moment of glory moment, upgraded to a light gold lamé.

Bailey famously delivers his fashion updates twice a year with his huge, live-streamed marquee shows in Kensington Gardens. In between, though, he saves himself. What an editor sees is an e-mailed press release, and the clothes are set out in the basement showroom of Burberry’s spacious headquarters in London where teams of buyers swarm around the rails. The surroundings—it’s the most impressively modern, purpose-built fashion establishment with state-of-the-art, high-tech studios for video and photography lining the corridors—are mind-blowingly enlightening in a business sense. But the brand methodology for presenting pre-collections is no-fuss, no-frills; Burberry Prorsum has yet to join in the new resort cycle of hijinks and mini runway shows. The point about Burberry is that it provides something for all ages, day to evening, city and country, and, at this commercial level, ease and familiarity probably makes more sense than too much “fashion.”