Entertainment news - Time, tide and Burberry shows wait for no woman – not even Naomi Campbell

Big names in fashion and film shuffle along the front row to let supermodel squeeze in to see Christopher Bailey’s folksy, hand-crafted collection

The Burberry catwalk show, being these days not so much a fashion parade as a key messaging moment for one of the giant brands of the modern age, waits for no one. Not even Naomi Campbell.
The physical audience at the Kensington Gardens venue for Monday’s Burberry show at London fashion week were dwarfed by the global audience for the live stream. (Burberry opts to show at 1pm GMT, rather than in a more traditionally prestigious evening slot, in order to reach Chinese fans before they go to sleep.)
Conscious of internet-eroded attention spans, the autumn/winter 2015 show began almost promptly, at 1.05pm.
In the front row, photographer Mario Testino linked arms with Kate Moss, here in black skinny jeans and sunglasses.
On his other side sat the model Jourdan Dunn, whose leather biker jacket matched the one worn by the adjacent Cara Delevingne.
She in turn rubbed shoulders with trenchcoat-clad singer Sam Smith, a quadruple Grammy winner, who was flanked by actor Maggie Gyllenhaal.
It was, by any standards, quite a turnout. But 10 minutes into the show, a security guard whispered into Testino’s ear, prompting the whole celebrity row to squeeze a few inches to their right, leaving a space into which Campbell, in shades and a white fur jacket, was magically squeezed.

Moss roared with laughter; the rest of the audience simply gawped. It is just this sort of thing – as much as an it bag, or a new silhouette – for which catwalk shows get remembered.
As it turned out, the disruption of the relentless efficiency of the digital world by Campbell’s moment of old-school supermodel bad behaviour could be read as shorthand for the message which Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s designer and CEO, is selling this season.
After a catwalk rich in folksy, hand-crafted pieces had ended in an autumnal shower of silvered sycamore seeds, Bailey explained backstage that: “I wanted to celebrate things that go slowly, things that still take time, because much as I love the speed of the digital world I value those things as well. Quick and slow - we need both.” (He was talking about Durham quilting, and mirror embroidery, rather than 1990s supermodels, but still.)
Entitled Patchwork, Pattern and Prints, the collection featured much fringed suede and many wisps of lace.
High suede boots, dramatic ponchos, whip stitching and round sunglasses – and shades of ochre and claret, teal and peacock – made for a 70s moment.
Long tiered, printed dresses suggested the hippie-era designer Thea Porter; flowing sheer silks cinched at the torso with waistcoat-shaped seams brought Stevie Nicks to mind.
Bailey, however, said: “It wasn’t intentionally 70s. Because we raised the waistline, and used longer lengths, we ended up there.
“But it didn’t start with an era, it started with the idea of folk, which is traditionally British but also, in the mirror embroidery, blends with different cultures. That to me is what Britishness is all about.”
Enthusing over the luxurious fabrics and intricate processes involved, Bailey said: “These very crafted clothes are pieces that can’t be made quickly. They take time, and I like the spirit that brings to the collection, as a contrast to how fast our world is.”
Just as he was about to embark on a discussion about the specific qualities of Durham quilting, Bailey was whisked away by minders – for the urgent business of posing with celebrity guests for photographs to be posted on social media. Quick and slow: Bailey and Burberry want, and need, to be both.
At Christopher Kane’s show, the lightning motifs which made for jagged, asymmetric necklines on flocked velvet cocktail dresses were apt for a truly electric collection.
Now is a key moment for Kane’s brand, which – with the heavyweight backing of luxury giant Kering – last week opened a substantial Mayfair boutique designed by John Pawson.

Thus it was an excellent moment for Kane to produce a collection which ranks with his very best.
The show, in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, opened with a black double-breasted coat, edged with blood red velvet and electric blue satin at the lapels and pocket trims.
Next came a perfect trouser suit, with the same spark of detail, and an abbreviated coat dress. As the strict tailoring relaxed into something more louche, silhouetted figures began to overlap, an intertwining of bodies in patchwork.
Little by little, the sketched lines became more erotic and more explicit, until a cocktail dress of layered nude mesh appeared, with finely drawn breasts and nude torsos embroidered in Swiss lace.
The seatbelt-clasp fastenings which made Kane’s handbags so distinctive when he launched them last year reappeared as belts, sometimes looped inside peekaboo dresses and cinched tight against the skin.
Where last season’s handbags were smartly utilitarian, this season’s update was seductively off-key: a leather frill around the edge of the bag, the seatbelt fastening moved off centre, and suddenly the bags called to mind a fancy box of Valentine’s Day chocolates.
This was a collection inspired by seduction. Kane and his design team took life drawing classes together in the studio, so that nude forms and sensuality would inform the collection from the very beginning.
“Everything I do essentially comes from drawing; it ultimately reflects how I feel,” said Kane in a statement issued at the show.
The designer appeared only briefly on the catwalk after the show before retreating backstage: the upbeat thrills that ran through the catwalk collection were in stark contrast to the personal circumstances of Kane and his sister and collaborator, Tammy. The show was dedicated to their mother, Christine, who after a sudden illness died just three days before the show.