"In Bloom": Riccardo Tisci between earth and water Burberry's SS21 show becomes a video installation inspired by the opposite worlds of nature, the sea and the forest

To be inspired by the sea and, in the words of creative director Riccardo Tisci, the "love story between a mermaid and a shark", the show from Burberry's SS21 collection kept itself quite far from the water. The 59 looks of the collection, in fact, paraded through the trees of a sunny park, in the midst of an installation by Anne Imhof and with the prog-rock musical accompaniment by Eliza Douglas. The end result was a digital/video-installation music-choreographic performance of sure impact, more like a druid ritual than the re-enactment of an English summer. The technological element, at least, has been exploited to its full potential, both for the broadcasting of the show to the public (which was streamed on Twitch for the first time with exceptional presenters such as Erykah Badu, Rosala, Steve Lacy and Bella Hadid) and for the final effect close to that of an extraordinarily elaborate video-performance.

The design of the trench coats, the brand's item-symbol, is perhaps the most interesting part of the collection. Tisci takes it and deconstructs it, flares it, changes materials, decorates it and remixes its silhouette indefinitely. The most beautiful is a pattern with a blue serpentine print that contrasts against the sand color but there is also one transformed with rubber cotton inserts, leather and details of a denim jacket and others with sculptural lapels on the back and characteristic cutouts. The clothing of the fishermen, made almost unrecognizable by its luxury update, inspires some of the most lifestyle-souled garments and the presence of crystals, both on the women's and men's side, evokes the ocean environment while the graphics of mermaids, newts, sharks and headlights give a unique twist to the rest of the collection.