According to Variety, Burberry is marking 170 years with "Wrapped in Burberry: Celebrating 170 Years," a Harmony Korine directed short set at Longleat House in Wiltshire, where Pierce Brosnan and Fiona Shaw play hosts to a Christmas party attended by Cara Delevingne, Gabrielle Union, Dwyane Wade, an oversized mirror ball, and dogs in check collars. The campaign sells the holiday line: trench coats, cashmere, check boucle handbags, and dog sweaters and bandanas.
A 170 year old coat company's answer to its own milestone is not a retrospective, not an archive film. It is a party with a guest list. The house that put a waterproof trench on every rainy soldier and taxi driver for a century now answers its own history with a Christmas card that has a production budget.
The dog accessories are the honest part of the press release. The trench was born as a utility garment, and 170 years later its natural endpoint is a check bandana for a poodle. That is the whole arc of the modern luxury brand: every product eventually becomes a gift for someone else's pet.
Meanwhile, the director who makes films that look like controlled hallucinations is on the payroll for a gift exchange in a country house. Same week, Mariah Carey is doing Gucci's Christmas video in a 20k dress. Luxury has stopped making things. It is in the hosting business now, and the product is the guest list.
YOUR TURN: Is a party the 170th anniversary of a trench coat, or is a trench coat the 170th anniversary of a party?
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