RUNWAY: Burberry SS18

Burberry's Spring/Summer 2018 collection is quite bittersweet. It was Christopher Bailey's final collection for the iconic British label so it was emotional in that way; he also  re-issued of some his most iconic pieces like that oversized shearling coat and brought back the Burberry plaid which he shied away from for so many years, this time with a new touch: rainbow colors. After 17 years at Burberry, Bailey has grown as a designer and an individual and during that time, he's gotten married to a man, something Bailey when he first started at Burberry would not have thought legally possible. In addition to the rainbow colors on the plaid, rainbows appeared on everything else from puffers to the Burberry name on tracksuits; the collection at times felt very celebratory. There was a lot of nostalgia within the collection and why wouldn't there be since this is Bailey's swansong? That being said, the other part of the bittersweet feeling of this collection highlighted that it truly is time for Bailey to go. Fashion has changed and this collection, while exuberant, felt off and possibly trying too hard to be like a certain Florentine label whose sales have skyrocketed since the appointment of its new creative director and in that aspect, it failed.