Tuesday 22 February 2011

Burberry takes over Piccadilly Circus – LFW 2011

Monday afternoon saw us venturing away from the catwalks and trundling down to Piccadilly Circus for Burberry’s live streaming of their AW11 collection. We were pretty excited about the prospect of being able to watch their show in the hustle and bustle of Piccadilly, what a great way to get everyone involved with their show!



The crowd and screen at Piccadilly

The live stream
We arrived early, and to our amazement saw a good crowd already positioned around the steps of the Eros Memorial Fountain, is this the new front row for the masses?! There was a real buzz, which was heightened by a live countdown timer on the illuminated screens, as groups of fashion students and office workers gathered to watch the first ever live screening of a catwalk on the billboard screens. Confused tourists still posed for photos and, having realized what was going on, couldn’t believe their luck to have stumbled upon such an experience! Before we knew it, our little crowd was being snapped at, sure to be shown to families back in their native countries.

Soon the crowd was up to 300-strong and the anticipation for the start of the show was high! To our disappointment, a technical glitch meant that the countdown timer jumped from 41 seconds back up to 4 minutes, but the patient crowd didn’t seem to mind too much. Showing scenes of celebrities arriving everyone was monitoring who was there and what they were wearing. Alexa Chung looked effortlessly cool (as always..) in an oversized jumper, leggings and a bright turquoise saddle bag. Ellie Goulding got her bling on with a stunning Burberry gold-studded Mac. The perfect choice!


When the streaming finally started the reaction was similar to that of a regular catwalk. People were taking images on their phones and chatting about what they loved and loathed. Unfortunately, like the weather conditions, the live stream kept freezing, which was slightly irritating to say the least as it meant that a few outfits were missed. However, from what we did see of the collection there was certainly nothing disappointing.  Once again, we see a British Heritage with a twist theme shine through thanks to a cow print flat cap teamed with a vibrant orange structured coat.

Structured shapes and rich autumnal colours of red, orange, pea green and duck egg blue dominated the collection and were given a feminine twist with clever waist belts and extreme wedge shoes. The inclusion of fur gave the collection a luxurious feel and tweed skirts further pushed a sense of British countryside glamour.

So, I guess there are two aspects of the Burberry show to review…the clothes and the live screening. The collection itself was brilliant, everything I expected from the British brand. The live screening, however, was fairly disappointing. The lack of music was a real problem, especially when tweets from the show were saying how great the music was - a soundtrack of cars beeping and droning bus engines doesn’t really do much for the collection! By the end of the show the initial buzzing atmosphere was definitely lost, probably due to the live feed constantly freezing, and the sub-zero weather conditions. So, it looks like Burberry will have to work a bit harder if they want to pull off a live screening next year – I think I will let someone else go to the live screening and I will stay warm and cozy at the live show!

Were you at the live screening in Piccadilly? What did you think about it? Would you go again next year?

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