THE BURB'S

If you’ve been studying the stars, the signs and portents of a major change in the industry have been coming thick and fast. The harbingers of the steady decline of seasonal fashion arriving with the exit of key players, resigning from the creatively exhausting orbit of catwalk shows, and the major houses realigning in order to cope with the wider repercussions of serving the global market.

Burberry’s latest shake up marks an even more exciting deconstruction of the existing fashion hierarchy, bypassing filtering collections through the fashion elite and marketing directly to the consumer.

“Our shows have been evolving to close this gap for some time. From livestreams to ordering straight from the runway to live social media campaigns, this is the latest step in a creative process that will continue to evolve.”

By cauterising the truncated process of waiting for collections to hit the shops with other brands like Vetements re-naming their collections of the month of their release to the public, and placing them outside of the regular fashion week schedules, the public have direct and fast access to the clothing, to pick and choose with autonomy what they want to buy, without the glossy pages of recommendations of seasonal trends poured over by fashion editors.

This change is part of a larger change in the way we consume fashion. Since the introduction of the Internet and the consequent dissemination of cultural and continent lines via globalisation, fashion is no longer dictated by overarching fads, but by the individual.

The world is a giant Pinterest board, the stylish can pick and choose influences outside the narrow constrictions of seasonal trends. With the emphasis ever increasing on individualism over homogeneity, it’ll remain to be seen whether other fashion houses will (or can afford to) follow Burberry’s lead.