Meet The New And Improved Burberry Trench Coat

Good news for those sick of the bland beige trench coat when it comes to rain-repellent outerwear: Burberry's Fall 2014 advertisements declare next autumn as the season of the non-traditional trench. Burberry's new campaign features flowing, painterly trench coats, which are as disparate from the company's traditional rain-repellent coats as can be. Interesting, since the brand just released a fragrance made to smell like the classic Burberry trench. Seriously.

Burberry's Fall 2014 runway boasted "Bloomsbury artistic set" inspiration, harkening back to such creative forces as Duncan Grant and Virginia Woolf. The result was a riot of contrasting colors, overlapping patterns, and the type of chaotic design which Burberry has eschewed until now. In fact, even the traditionally rigid silhouettes of the Burberry trench were abandoned in favor of softer, free-flowing fabrics such as silk cotton organdy. Instead of appealing to a conservative, preppy consumer, the new collection is much more beatnik and nonconformist in nature, right down to the irregular patterns which appear to fall right off of each piece.

Many critics give new CEO and former Creative Director Christopher Bailey credit for the new, bohemian Burberry, but whatever the reasoning behind the change, it appears that the brand has officially entered the 21st century, leaving its prim, proper reputation in the dust. But before you get out your watercolors and go to town on your beige raincoat, bear in mind that trends come and go. While a artistically distressed coat may be in this season, 2015 could mean the return of the traditional trench. And the last thing you need is a coat whose "artsy" design resembles Kim Kardashian's George Condo-designed Birkin.

Images: burberry.com; Burberry/Twitter