Burberry's Hand-me-downs

At Milan fashion week last night Burberry once again proved that in spirit, if not in terms of factory jobs, it remains British to the core.

The relationship between high fashion and bottom-line retail figures is a subtle one. The Burberry check, still much in evidence in stores, has long been absent from designer Christopher Bailey's exceedingly chic catwalk shows. Even the label's signature trenchcoat makes only cameo appearances.

Instead, the Burberry catwalk is home to a rarified notion of Britishness. Yesterday's show channeled a bluestocking-at-Sissinghurst kind of Englishwoman: gardening hats and culottes, tea dresses with William Morris-esque floral relief embroidery, and cardigans that did a first-rate impression of hand-me-downs from a chic great-aunt.

Gardening hats were jammed down to obscure the models' identity, and a succession of squishy, capacious, she's-leaving-home bags, instead of the perky mini-clutches currently popular on the catwalk, almost suggested grunge. But the soft metallics color-palette of citrine, bronze and pewter was wistful and dreamy rather than downbeat, as was the music: this season we ended on Love You Til the End by the Pogues.

Earlier in the day, the "icons of glamor, elegance and style" of "Nice, Cannes, St Tropez and Cap d'Antibes" were cited as the inspiration for the D&G collection. This being Milan, the Riviera chic was seen through Milanese eyes, so the Breton stripes came not in boat-neck, long-sleeved T-shirts but in skintight mini-playsuits worn over fishnet tights, while the Chanel-style suits featured hotpants instead of skirts.