Burberry’s Spring/Summer 2021 Show : A Collection with Satanic and Underworldly Undertones?
Judging from the comments made by viewers who tuned into Burberry’s Spring/Summer 2021 show on IG Live, I can quite confidently say that most of us experienced it in a similar way, or rather, had similar opinions of it. And with the show being presented in such a manner, with the models walking into the woods, with a clearing arranged in a circle with models dressed in white standing within the circle, others were seated and/or laying on the pedestal, while other models dressed in colours standing around them, seemed as if they were keeping watch and judging, to determine whether those in the middle would “pass the test”.
Well, whatever Creative Director Riccardo Tisci was trying to achieve, what was presented certainly evoked a sort of initiation ritual, or, as several IG commenters pointed out, “cult vibes”. One of the band members with long hair started whipping his head back and forth … no, not in a rock n’ roll kinda style, but rather, as if he was possessed and in a trance. Those wearing white standing within the circle followed suit. Arguably, all this could be considered as some sort of interpretive dance or artsy-fartsy performance art method of presenting a fashion collection. But, from my perspective and I’m sure a lot of you would agree with me on this, was that instead of being enthralling, it was eerie, and very uncomfortable to watch, to say the least. *mindblown*
I then got curious, and went to Burberry’s Official IG account to check out the other posts, to try to make sense of what Tisci was really trying to say about this collection…. and then I came across this post starring the artist Eliza Douglas
Okay, so while those roots that she’s holding in both hands can be suggestive of being at one with nature (because “Burberry In Nature” is apparently the theme of the SS21 collection), the tee she’s wearing, immediately caught my eye because it reminded me of the pentagram, also known as the Satanic symbol, except instead of making the star look exactly like how the stars in pentagrams typically do, it’s sort of semi-disguised as a vector-like graphic motif. I was quite convinced with my very own hypothesis, and a simple search on Dr. Google confirmed my suspicions:
Ladies and gents, does it not look strikingly similar (though not overtly so), in comparison to the “glowing ink cult star”? While the Burberry version may not be a star within a star in a circle, the formation of the lines behind the circle on the tee could either look like an innocent sketch of a basketball, OR, it could look like a sketch of the globe, but suggestive of something more sinister – the desire to convert the world into practising Satanic ways of life /world domination for Satanism. Reading too much into it? Possibly. But, bearing the image above in mind, and given the trance-like initiation vibe in which the show was presented, when we take all this into consideration as a whole, I’m leaning towards the latter: in efforts to turn Burberry into a brand with cult status, the Spring/Summer 2021 collection has resorted to doing this literally with Satanic and underworldly undertones. What say you?
