Makers House - Burberry

By Hannah Brown
Mar 1, 2017
3 min read

I have been lucky enough to attend the first and second Makers house exhibition space exhibiting Burberry's February collection for A/W 17 and yet again, there was no disappointment at all! This time round Burberry have teamed up with The Henry Moore Foundation to provide a textural, captivating experience while you walk around, visually seeing all the different references from the Henry Moore sculptures into the design work from Burberry.

It was just down the road from the previous week-long exhibition space last time so, it was nice to have kept it in the same surrounding area (1 Manette Street London, W1D 4AT). Okay so for you who don’t know much about Henry Moore… He’s a British artist (1898–1986), born in Castleford, Yorkshire, which is also home to the well-known Burberry’s trench coat factory. His main field of art was creating beautiful modernism bronze sculptures, mostly of female or family orientated human figures. The collaboration between the Henry Moore Foundation and Burberry has been absolutely outstanding – although I am slightly bias as I love Henry Moore and Burberry’s work both individually. Throughout the week that it was open, it held workshops and event including printmaking, textile printing, life drawing and a wax resist watercolour class. This couldn’t have happened without the amazing crafty partners Hole & Corner, The Hepworth Wakefield and The New Craftsmen! Gutted I couldn’t stay long enough to take part in any of these workshops or browse the top floor of the exhibition space – I was pushing for time anyway that day so I could only adore and absorb everything that was going on the ground floor – which was pretty spectacular anyhow!

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So, the main section I got to see was ‘The Cape Reimagined’ bit where there were 78 phenomenal couture capes, fitted onto a torso mannequin, hung from the ceiling on clear wire. Seriously it was beautiful! The capes were evenly spread out with a name and short caption on the floor beneath it as a little insight. Walking down the hall, from each side you were surrounded by these beautiful couture creations, each clearly inspired by the form of Henry Moore’s sculptures. If you wanted to have one of these capes yourself, they were available to special order. So, if you got the cash handy... get yo’self some sexy ass couture cape girl – that will be for sure a finishing piece to any outfit!✨

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The thing that I took away from the exhibition was the power and relationship between the art form of a fine sculptor and the beautiful craftsmanship of a brilliant fashion designer and their team. As always, seeing the February A/W 17 Burberry collection was aaaaaa-maz-ing! I had seen the images online and watched the show via the Burberry website prior to attending the exhibition but honestly, nothing compares to seeing the clothes right in front of you. You see the great detail that you so easily miss by watching a video or seeing a single image. The ability to feel the texture and tactilness of the garments yourself. And yet again it was a see now, buy now experience – so you could buy whatever you see in the showroom. The sheer variety throughout the collection was fantastic, so many great knits matched with crisp shirts and not forgetting them black crazy circular/ knit ankle heels. Im sure the images will speak loud and clear by themselves.

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