By Rimante Bivainyte

Burberry – over century and a half old fashion brand which is famous for its tartan patterns and trench coats has changed brandsÔÇÖ logo and monogram first time in 20 years. With a new chief creative officer Riccardo Tisci who is a former Givenchy creative director, Burberry brand is about to face dramatic changes. While Tisci is preparing his ready-to-wear debut for the London Fashion Week, the brand is already sharing new looks on Instagram under Riccardo TisciÔÇÖs ÔÇÿreignÔÇÖ and reveals new design of the logo.

For those who do not know much about this brand, Burberry has been established in 1856 by Thomas Burberry. According to Fashion Historian Nancy Deihl from NYU, Burberry popularised the fabric called gabardine – a very tightly woven material which is suitable for outerwear. Moreover, British army officers wore Burberry coats, a style that was known as the Tielocken, during the Boer War in the 1890’s.

Getting back to the topic of the new logo, the advent of this logo has brought some discussions and debates. It is known that the new logo was created by Peter Saville, who participated in redesigning Calvin KleinÔÇÖs logo. Here, Saville dropped the Equestrian Knight symbol and replaced former ÔÇÿBodoniÔÇÖ font into a ÔÇÿsan serifÔÇÖ one. Furthermore, the monogram demonstrates the palette of white, orange and beige colours that reflect the heritage of the brand and shows B and T interwoven into each other emphasizing Thomas BurberryÔÇÖs name.

ÔÇÿHistorically, BurberryÔÇÖs logotype was appropriate to the trench coatÔÇÖs utilitarian nature,ÔÇÖ Saville told Deezen. ÔÇÿBurberry needed an identity that is fluid and able to cross over into all the categories that are required of a big luxury clothing and accessories brand – something to transcend the company provenance without denying it.ÔÇÖ However, by looking at the new logo and monogram, it is quite noticeable that logo font can be easily found on any design software as well as the monogram itself that does not seem as sophisticated as the previous Equestrian Knight one. On one of the Chinese websites called Weibo BurberryÔÇÖs fans started the debate, hence one of the users commentated, saying: ÔÇÿÔÇÿWhen luxury brands like Gucci are working on enhancing the level of difficulty in copying their goods through complicated design, Burberry is going the opposite way. Before, not every copycat [could] copy the Equestrian Knight sign perfectly!ÔÇØ

 

 

 

Moreover, earlier this year Burberry shed the light on their annual report which led to the media scandal. BurberrysÔÇÖ annual report stated that the company burned ┬ú28.6m of products which included ┬ú10.4m worth of beauty items. Retailers have stated that this measure has been taken due to the need to protect intellectual property and to stop illegal counterfeiting, moreover,┬áthe brand noted that it only destroyed items that had its trademark.

This have brought a massive uproar on Twitter. People started tweeting about BurberrysÔÇÖ actions following the #burnberry. Twitter users have condemned the brand for the wastefulness and its decision to destroy items instead of donating them. One of the users tweeted: “Hey, @Burberry, there is no need to burn $28 mil worth of stock. Donate it to school foundations that can auction or sell it to help educate your future designers!”

Over the years┬áfashion industry has greatly contributed to the pollution of the environment and became one of the primary polluters on a global scale. Even though people become more conscious of fast fashion and its drawbacks and pay more attention to the slow fashion and the quality of the product, nonetheless, BurberrysÔÇÖ actions and attitude made a highly negative contribution to the fashion industry as well as to the environment. Therefore, this only teaches the industry that the best solution is to produce less and seek for the alternatives.