Tonight¹s event was a celebration of everything we stand for our Britishness, our belief in creativity and innovation, and our authentic heritage. So many of these themes are shared with this incredible city. Shanghai is a place of such spirit and energy and it has truly inspired us.
This evening's experience was a magical, immersive journey through our Burberry brand blurring the physical with the digital it merged fashion, dance, with music, craftsmanship and artistry. It connected our worlds from London to Shanghai.”
Christopher Bailey, Burberry Chief Creative Officer
RECENTLY
BRINGING LONDON TO SHANGHAI
Tonight, British luxury brand Burberry celebrated the launch of its new Shanghai flagship store, Burberry Kerry Centre, by bringing the spirit, creativity and heritage of the brand from its hometown of London into the heart of Shanghai, China.
Celebrating with a global audience, over 1500 guests, including Jamie Campbell Bower, Chen Kun, Vicki Zhao, Guey Lun Mei, Xia Yu, Chen Ran, Dou Xiao, Huo Siyan, Angelababy, Carine Lau, Ke Zheng Dong, Lin Chilling and Du Juan, followed a paved London street flanked by city street lamps into the auditorium of a cinematic theatre style set.
On the banks of the Huangpu River, the custom-built venue in the Shanghai Shipyard features handcrafted elements inspired by the brand’s global flagship, 121 Regent Street, which was originally the site of one of the first cinemas in London.
The evocative space, a nod to the golden age of cinema, became the backdrop for an immersive journey through the Burberry worlds of Britishness, heritage, music and fashion and the brand’s story unfolded in a series of emotive, musical scenes, featuring the Burberry family of musicians, models and dancers, blurring the physical distance between London and Shanghai with digital technology.
SCENES FROM THE BURBERRY STORY
Heritage: as guests gathered, a short film, bringing the brand’s iconic trench coat to life, began. The space then transformed to reveal a magical scene of London’s Regent Street merged with Shanghai’s iconic skyline.
Under The Spotlight: the cinema screen rose and the velvet curtains parted to reveal British musician George Ezra performing “Did You Hear The Rain?” live.
Sartorial London: dancers, wearing iconic Burberry trench coats and Burberry tailoring, performed a specially choreographed dance.
Dancing Umbrellas: a storm stirred to the ‘drip drip’ of a live percussion by British DJ Gary Powell, introducing the romantic melody of an umbrella waltz, followed by lightening and thunder. Ed Harcourt performed “You Can’t Stop The Rain” live, a globally exclusive track specially written for the event.
Beauty Dream: a dreamlike beauty sequence began with magic windows light up and silhouettes applying make-up.
The Runway: a live performance from British musician Ed Harcourt introduced the Burberry Bloomsbury girls including models Cara Delevingne, Suki
Waterhouse and Qin Shu Pei. With hand-painted patterns filling the event space, followed by British musician Paloma Faith performing “Only Love Can Hurt Like This” live.
Finale: the magical journey culminated in a finale with British model and actress Cara Delevingne flying above the audience.
Live British Soundtrack
The entire production was accompanied by a score of British music including tracks by Marina & the Diamonds, Miles Kane and Rhodes. British musicians Ed Harcourt, George Ezra and Paloma Faith performed specially arranged tracks live.
Celebrating Burberry Collections
The performance featured the Autumn/Winter 2014 Bloomsbury Girls collection and celebrated the iconic trench coat, Burberry Beauty and tailoring. Previewed in Shanghai for the first time, the hand-painted Burberry Bloomsbury bag is now available for purchase and personalisation exclusively on cn.Burberry.com.
LIVE ON SHARED MEDIA
Through a parallel social event experience, consumers globally could follow the journey from London to Shanghai before, during and after the event on Burberry social streams including Sina Weibo, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Google+ and WeChat with exclusive responsive content.
Burberry collaborated with mobile messaging platform WeChat to create a parallel event experience where before the event followers were able to interact with a series of London and Shanghai skylines by shaking, swiping or tapping their devices. After the event, interactive event panoramas could be brought to life using a newly developed tool allowing users to immerse themselves in dynamic, 360° views of the London and Shanghai set. The activity marked the second stage of the Burberry WeChat innovation partnership.
INNOVATIVE RETAIL BEHAVIOUR
The event is the start of a multi-year programme of investment activity in the city and wider region. In a year of transformation for Burberry in Shanghai, the brand opened four new stores in the city completed by the new Burberry Kerry Centre. The brand has stores in 36 cities in China.
The event also marked the start of a new collaboration with the Alibaba Group with the opening of the official Burberry Tmall.com store, offering the purest articulation of the Burberry brand on any of the Alibaba platforms to date. A luxury brand first, the collaboration reflects a shared commitment to offering Chinese consumers the best luxury experiences.
For more information, please contact Kobfah PR Agency Tel. 02 274 3282