Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
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locations, Bailey—who oversees store design and advertising campaigns in addition to the 12 collec- tions he produces yearly for the 156-year-old brand—says he preferred to create a wholly new environment as the frame for his mix of forward- thinking ready-to-wear, punctuated of course by those highly popular check-lined trench coats. "Often with stores you'll kind of develop a concept and then roll that out to different locations—here we started with a blank sheet of paper," he says. "We took some of the best of our other stores, and the rest we did specifically for Chicago. It's the biggest glass building we've ever done, which hopefully allows for light and transparency, which we love, but also makes you feel a sense of intimacy." The building's façade plays with the scale of Burberry's signature tartan check, which the label first introduced in the 1920s; inside there's a decided focus on showcasing Burberry's love for the digital age, with a theater space that allows for live broadcasts on a tiled video wall, as well as interactive touch screens and other video installa- one of the most comprehensive selections of Bailey's men's and women's collections available in the US: For the latter, the store opens with his "Town and Field" look at fall/winter, a chic mix of herringbone and tweed as well as of-the-moment details such as diagonal ruffles on a pencil skirt or a herringbone peplum as contrasting panels on a camel coat. Accessories, meanwhile, will range from a must-have bag of the season, the top-han- dled, hexagonal-shaped Orchard, to a watch rollout that's key for the brand, the Britain. In 2014 the Burberry trench coat will celebrate its 100th birthday, having been commis- sioned by England's War Office in 1914 to adapt an officer's coat for a more contemporary era; after World War I the style immedi- ately became popular with civilians. And if over the years the focus on the trench seems to sometimes overshadow other elements of the collection, Bailey not only doesn't seem to mind, he eagerly embraces it. Fringed field boot ($950) "What I do every season is take the trench coat as the starting point," he explains. "I try to give it a relevance and tions throughout the store. The statement-making flagship will also offer make it up-to-date for the way we live. We have more than 150 years of history, and I feel like there are still so many facets of the brand to explore." Bailey's dedication to the coat extends to a digital plat- form he created in 2009, an online site dubbed Art of the Trench, which he notes will like- wise be key opening. "As to the Chicago the store opening nears you'll see Art of the Trench in ads all around the city and in the store as well [after opening]," Bailey notes, adding that Chicagoans will be key to the project, with photographers hired to document chic trench wearers throughout the city, culminating in an exhibit both online and in the store. "We wanted to do something that showed our commitment to the city, something that felt like it had a real integrity about it. We some- times describe Burberry as an old-young continued on page 84 MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 83 Traditional British looks in the "town and field" aesthetic from the Fall 2012 show. A rendering of the Michigan Avenue flagship. " Chicago feels like a place where there's an admiration for something that has a long heritage, and that appeals to us."—CHRISTOPHER BAILEY