London Fashion Week: Burberry Prorsum Spring/Summer 2011

A word, Christopher Bailey: perhaps the next time you use Heritage Bikers as your inspiration for Burberry Prorsum, you might consider a classic, Harley-ready combat boot instead.

We're sure many of Bailey's girls were in agreement after yesterday's show; the eight-inch, multi-strap and -buckle stiletto biker boots were the undoing of many a model. Several opted to remove their boots and go barefoot, while poor, poor Nina Porter (Burberry's latest campaign girl, no less) took a major tumble as she closed the show. Her leather biker jacket bristling with lethal silver spikes may have been achingly cool, but it probably doesn't break a fall comfortably.

Nevertheless, like these wobbly models, Burberry soldiers on with a collection that's brassier, edgier, and altogether more...bad to the bone than anything the heritage brand had seen before. Bailey may have used Thomas Burberry's Heritage Biker collection for early-1900's motorbike riders as inspiration, but his iconic trench was rendered unrecognizable as it was shrunken, studded, and leather-ed up to oblivion. Itsy-bitsy biker jackets were done up in python at one turn, cinched with a highlighter-neon waist belt at the next, and then covered with domes and positively deadly cone spikes. Has the classic English rose gone Hell's Angel? Maybe; even seemingly girly ruched minidresses, in vibrant neons or a multi-colored leopard-print georgette, got the motorcycle treatment with prominent silver zippers and banded tethers of shiny leather.

It was a bit jarring at times, to say the least--perhaps we can even make a metaphor out of the killer heel discomfort, as the models tiptoed with difficulty into new territory. Burberry's at its best when it still pays clear homage to the past; Bailey has proven himself adept in modern, ultra-hip reinvention that gives a slight nod to the brand's heritage. While those skintight patent trousers and studded leathers may be covetable (I'll certainly get on a waiting list for a spiky little jacket), some of his mini-minidresses veered so off course that they nearly fell down.

Photo source: Elle.com