Blast From The Past

For his second Spring/Summer collection, Riccardo Tisci drew upon the Victorian era and his signature affection for streetstyle to reinvent the future of Burberry.

- Terence Poh

The past The spirit of Riccardo Tisci’s work in fashion deserves to be the emblem of today’s youth. We reside in a digital age when world events, culture and ideas are evolving at a pace that is nearly impossible to truly keep up with. In response, the internet generation seems to long for a time bygone, when time seemed to move at a slower beat. Of course, the past also harbours old cultures, often grander and more beautiful in retrospect, like the elegance of the Victorian period, the Great Gatsby era of the Roaring 20s, or the hippie fashion of the ’70s. And to reconcile the old with the new, fashion seems to be a willing accomplice.

Thus, Tisci’s propensities toward hybrids, through a study of blending vintage elements with modern streetwear or futuristic inventions, fit snugly within the culture of nostalgia. An expert at manoeuvring conventionally incompatible genres, the Italian designer arguably paved the way for streetwear’s now ubiquitous presence in high fashion, by being one of the first few to manipulate and inject street style into high fashion pieces during his time as chief designer at Givenchy.

Now, as chief creative officer at Burberry, the Italian designer has sparked renewed interest in the British brand with the same design sensitivities that earned him a loyal cult-following during his decade-long reign at Givenchy.

For his Spring/Summer ’20 collection, Tisci built on the fresh yet promising foundation that he has set for Burberry, taking the world far back to the Victorian heritage of Thomas Burberry, but on a futuristic runway stage adorned with giant installations of white speakers that blasted an emotive soundtrack curated by DJ William Djoko.