Burberry Prorsum Menswear Fall 2009
Burberry Prorsum Menswear Fall 2009

MILAN, Jan 19, 2009 / FW/ — Trust Christopher Bailey to grasp the current zeitgeist of austerity and turn it into a very powerful statement of male masculinity without being overbearing. Inspired by the work of Bill Brandt, one of the pre-eminent photographers of the 20th century, Bailey went back to the post World War II era where devastation was everywhere but there was also an air of hope.

And from that air of hope, the Burberry Prorsum lad for Fall 2009 came to be: knee-length winter coats with wide lapels, snug fitting pin-striped suits, crumpled tuxedo shirts, pea coats in black & red. Even the iconic Burberry plaid made a comeback in this collection as scarves and long sleeved shirts!

Again, it is the strong silent type man that dominates. He might be a working class hero dressed in braided knits and extra-long cardigans. He can be the accountant or a MAd Man, to use an American slang. He can even be the quintessential British rocker with his knitted cummerbund and silk-screened t-shirt. But above all, he is man who is solid and dependable!

Solid and dependable, two words from our parents and grandparents generations. It was almost an insult to describe a man during a time of excess, when everyone wants to be a revolutionary in terms of how much money they make be they a man or a woman. Solid and dependable was passé.

Burberry Prorsum Menswear Fall 2009
Burberry Prorsum Menswear Fall 2009

Yet, this time, when we need to move forward, when life as we know it is teetering, we ask these solid and dependable men to come to our rescue. And these are the men that Christopher Bailey had called forth for Fall 2009 Winter 2010. In the winter of our discontent, the Burberry Prorsum lad had come to bail us out.

[MARI DAVIS]

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