Pre-Fall 2013 Burberry Prorsum

By Nicole Phelps

Hit the town for fashion shows in December and you'll clock a lot of buttons spelling "BURBERRY" in the front rows. Christopher Bailey has built an empire on outerwear—a new flagship, constructed from the ground up, opened just last week in the Windy City—and there was no shortage of wantable coats in his new collection for pre-fall: a caban with oversize snap closures on the inside of the lapels, a twofer topper in navy with a removable black leather capelet (remove it and the coat doubles as a sleeveless dress), a cropped shearling bomber. He whipped up trenches galore, many of them in abstract animal-print calf hair.

In keeping with the graphic look of the printed calf hair trenches, Bailey showed easy color-blocked knit dresses, and, for something with a stricter silhouette, a zigzag-stripe turtleneck worn with a grommeted leather pencil skirt, and a sheath dress in a dégradé black-on-white dot. For men, there was a heart-print button-down shirt and colorful cashmere pullovers with Beefeaters, bobbies, and bowler hat men on their fronts. They added a bit of charm and levity that wouldn't have gone amiss on the women's side. All in all, the collection could've done with a few more surprises, but that won't stop the registers from ringing.