It is 10 p.m. on a clement spring night and a scene is playing out in front of an unremarkable building. There is a throng of people waiting outside, eager to enter the Narnia that beckons beyond the impeccably dressed gatekeepers they are negotiating with. Every so often, the unmarked door opens to let in the successful chosen few, offering a teeny glimmer of light to those left behind. In some ways it is reminiscent of the activity outside a hot London club on a typical Friday night. Except, of course, it isn’t. This is Venice, and it is the opening week of the 60th Biennale—the so-called Olympics of the art world—which opened to the public in April and will run until November.
That night’s event—as far away from your run-of-the-mill club night as you can get—is a glamorous cocktail party at the iconic Harry’s Bar, whose Bellinis and carpaccio are as famous as the arty clientele that has frequented the teeny, unpretentious venue (everyone from Marcel Proust to Peggy Guggenheim). The host? Burberry, the headline sponsor of the British Pavilion, which this year unveiled a new exhibition, “Listening All Night to the Rain,” by the artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah. And so, the crowd is a chic cacophony of the world’s coolest gallerists, curators, artists, muses, and friends of Daniel Lee, Burberry’s chief creative officer. On a night of Burberry events that began with a live recording at the St. Regis bar of the hit podcast Talk Art, hosted by actor Russell Tovey and gallerist Robert Diament, it was a bonafide thumbs-up to Burberry’s long-standing commitment to arts and culture, both at home and abroad.
Of course, the love affair between fashion and art is nothing new. As far back as the 1930s, Elsa Schiaparelli found synergy with Salvador Dalí, and in 1965, Yves Saint Laurent took inspiration for his Mondrian dress from the artist’s abstract canvases. Today, the fashion/art dalliance is ubiquitous: a luxury fashion brand that has not dipped a toe into the art world is a rarity. But in the words of Octavia Butler, there’s nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns. Burberry’s point of difference—its “new sun,” as it were—is an impressive commitment to arts and culture, specifically through supporting British cultural institutions, or working closely with British artists such as Akomfrah. It is a dedication that long precedes the current trend of fashion houses reinventing themselves as a 21st-century “culture” brand.
