The last two Burberry collections have been outstanding. Christopher Bailey’s a/w 2010 show began the mega trend for all things aviator when he brought out the big guns in the form of those shearling luxuries and seeing the studded biker jackets for ss2011 nearly made me put my fist through my computer screen to get one step closer to touching them. Burberry was in the running to feature heavily on my 2011 wishlist but seeing pre-fall has put a wee bit of a dampner on things, and now my pointless list of items which i will never acquire in my wildest dreams, lies up in the air! Alas, Alack!

I always go through an entire collection twice; the first time i scan for the theme and form a general opinion and the second time i pick out my favourite pieces and solidify my meaningless thoughts. I am aware that my views are of very little importance to anyone but myself but i like to pretend that i’m the most significant and influential fashion critic extraordinaire to ever strut around this planet and, during this period of dreaming, i firmly believe that my millions of followers take my word as gospel. This might not be the exact realistic situation but nevertheless, it is a compulsive routine (of which i have many).

Ok, so drifting ever closer to the matter at hand, in carrying out this routine with pre-fall burberry, i felt a tad underwhelmed; which i did not expect. Everything seemed a teeny bit conventional and lacked the punch of the last few collections. The trench coats were nice, the bags were nice, the boots were nice, the caplets were….. that’s right, you guessed it; nice. But nice is B-O-R-I-N-G!

  

I will, however, say that it is up there with the better pre-falls of season so far, excepting Jason Wu and Chanel; bien sur. There were SOME stand-out pieces, primarly within the evening-wear section towards the end. I liked the elongated cut of the dresses and, jeez, those black pants made the model’s legs alone look 6ft long; it would for sure be in my-5ft 2-self’s best interest to bag a pair.

Despite trying to reign me in with its elegance (and alluring leg lengthening charm ) , this collection was too safe and a bit damp for my liking. I didn’t get the buzz that i was expecting BUT i have to remember that it is only pre-fall and may just be a taste of what is to come for a/w2011.

Thakoon

Now, Thakoon i liked. When i started scanning through the collection i was still in the post-pre-fall-burberry-grump but as i made my way through, the tension eased off, the glow came back into my face and the force with which i clicked on the “next” button gently lessened until i found myself in a more pleasant disposition.

At first we were introduced to the colour palette of black, white and red interspersed with brown when colour clashing permitted. There was a lot of block colour to begin with, then patterns and prints began to emerge along with more light droplets of blue and yellow; all of this was welcomed, albeit with slight hesitance at the start.

  

I liked the cuteness of the printed dresses, the clean-ness  and geometricity of the cut and the way sheer fabric was thrown into the mix. A few chunky-knit pieces caught my eye but my favourite look is found near the close in the form of a long cherry-red, sheer-ish jersey dress. There’s a hint of sexuality in the innocence of that piece; in a woman-in-her-boyfriend’s-shirt kind of way.

At this point it’s hard to suss out what Thakoon Panichgul’s niche is but there’s time for that yet, all i know is that i liked this pre-fall collection quite a lot, if only for dragging me out of my burberry depression.