In State of the Art, a column for Highsnobiety, Chris Erik Thomas untangles the crossover between fashion and art.
Want to set your brand apart from the pack with a bit of craft? Call in the octogenarians.
Just kidding, mostly. But the strategy did wonders for Burberry this season: Its Spring/Summer 2027 collection was a colorful, buoyant critical success, thanks to the inimitable talents of 85-year-old textile designer Celia Birtwell. Her signature florals (and some never-before-produced prints of emoji-like faces) appeared on dresses, shirts, and the brand’s signature outerwear. It was the brightest, most shamelessly fun show of London Fashion Week. Yes, fun! Remember her?
Bringing in Birtwell specifically for SS27 was a genius move by the brand’s creative director, Daniel Lee. Her “flower power” prints defined 1960s London, but it’s been more recent forays into fashion that teed her up perfectly for Burberry; her four sell-out Topshop collections in the 2000s and a 2013 Uniqlo collection planted a seed for a new generation of Brits to fall for her patterns. Flash forward a decade or two, and the Burberry collaboration makes those high street fans from years ago not just recogniz...