Guest Coast By Margaret Sche

Picking up where Phoebe Philo of Celine left off with her Women’s Fall ‘10 collection, Christopher Bailey’s Spring Summer 2011 Men’s collection continued the major Fashion shift towards Minimal Classic tailoring with an edge.  Burberry is a brand with a strong connection to its heritage, and this season’s clothes were no exception. Christopher dug deeply into the Burberry archives channeling the brand’s classic roots of tailoring with a British sensibility.  With a nod to early 20th century biker roots, the collection was titled “Heritage Biker” and combined classic silhouettes with motocross details.

Although Burberry is always designed with Classicism at its core, this season made serious headway in the overall Fashion trend that is putting distinct tailoring and classic sportswear back on the map.  From classic camel trenches to navy officers coats, a military theme was combined with the always present London streetwear influence in leather motocross jackets and vests.

Jackets were studded and paired with jersey pants and crochet tops for the perfect combination of boyish charm and masculine edge.  Leather epaulettes were placed on camel trenches and worn with beautifully tailored leather trousers. Olive, black, grey and camel was the primary color palette allowing the masterful tailoring to speak for itself. Many of the trends seen in Womenswear this Fall were there:  transparency, ankle length trousers, leather separates, mesh knitwear and classic silhouettes.

Even the accessories were kept minimal with models sporting clean leather gladiators and Birkenstocks carrying beautifully crafted leather satchels.

As one of the top visionaries in fashion of our time, it is no wonder Christopher Bailey sees the future of menswear turning back to its tailored beginnings.

The past several years have witnessed men’s fashion blurring the lines of masculinity producing a more feminine approach to sartorialism and style.  As the streets have influenced a “hipster” culture run rampant,  the days of men looking like men seem to be a thing of the past.

The boom times of fashion produced a disheveled version of chic giving the impression that noone cares what the other thinks about them.

Smashing all idols and conventions, men’s fashion produced a flippant “don’t care” attitude dismissing how society judges artificial external superficialities such as suits and ties.  Luckily for us, the Americana trend of the past several seasons has influenced a likening similar to the clothing movement of The Great Depression where men had to look their best in order to find work.

Great fashion always has a nod to the past while stepping toward the future and Christopher Bailey’s Spring/Summer 2011 collection was exactly that.  In times of economic turmoil, one must look their best and tailoring, utility and versatility are at the core of this movement.  This massive pendulum in fashion is only at the beginning stages- but there will be more to come as designers and consumers alike begin to look at fashion as way of exemplifying beauty and strength rather than making a fashion statement.

Images: Style

Margaret Sche is is a fashion merchandising expert with 15 years of work in the fashion industry. Sche has partnered with global-influencer brands such as Forever 21, Tommy Hilfiger,The Sak and American Rag. Her fashion styling images created for advertising, editorials and celebrities have appeared in publications such as In Style,Vanity Fair, Surface, Teen Vogue and Nylon.

Her contribution to FOAM magazine as a Fashion Editor led Margaret into freelance fashion writing and market coverage reporting for various online resources.  Most recently, she was head of Fashion Direction for Forever 21, where her merchandising vision influenced the global retail market and contributed to the company’s increase in  earnings.  You may visit her online at MargetSche.com or follower her on twitter at TheScheReport.