London Fashion Week AW14: Burberry paints the changing seasons in swirling ...

Guess who's here? As expected, Harry Styles sat front row at the Burberry AW14 show (Picture: PA)

Monday of London Fashion Week is traditionally the day when the big budget brands unveil their collections. The awe-inspiring Christopher Kane, Roksanda Ilincic and Erdem were all on the bill. But, the biggest of all the Brit brands at the moment is still Burberry.

Burberry's Monday afternoon show, always held in a custom built tent in Hyde Park, is the most sought-after ticket in town. Demand far outstrips supply. Fortunately, the brand also streams the show on its site so everyone has the chance to view the next must-have collection live (even if it is rather surreptitiously on your desk PC).

This season was the last show under the stewardship of both creative director Christopher Bailey and soon to depart chief executive Angela Ahrendts and it was a suitably, wistful, romantic, yet uplifting sign off, inspired by the boho Bloomsbury set of 1920s London.

Romance was certainly in the air, with a proud Bradley Cooper (sat next to Anna Wintour) and also Harry Styles both in the front row to support their lady friends (present and past), Suki Waterhouse and Cara Delevingne, who walked in the show.

Paloma Faith performed in the show (Picture: Jonathan Short/Invision/AP)

But, forget the boys, it was the clothes people had piled in to see. To a lilting soundtrack performed live by Ed Harcourt, Rhodes and, lastly, Paloma Faith and in front of a backdrop of London dissolving into inky watercolours, we were seduced first by the bohemian layered painted scarf dresses, the classic trenches daubed with swirling florals, the large painted leather handbags and the painted suede lace open-toe boots. We have seen art's influence on fashion already for SS14 but this was far more romantic, emotive take on the trend for next season.

Edie Campbell models one of the paint daubed trenches, complete with scarf tie (Picture: Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images)

Models in long, ethereal swirling layers referenced those Bloomsbury artists at the turn of the century, the modernist, tormented writers like Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell who fixated purely on aesthetics, on art for art's sake.

The largely muted colour palette began in early autumn with dusky pinks, lilacs, duck egg blues, yellows and burnt oranges, before moving thorough the seasons to violets, deep blues, jade greens and burgundys. The early summer florals, too, turned to leaf motifs later on in the collection, on dresses, winter furs and sheer skirts.

Cara is wrapped in layered autumnal silks at the Burberry AW14 show (Picture: Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images)

Cropped 70s style luxurious sheepskin jackets and belted fuzzy blanket coats were added over the flimsy silk scarf dresses as the seasons turned, while sheer lace dresses were introduced for evening.

Suki Waterhouse sports one of the gorgeous cropped sheepskin jackets for colder days (Picture: Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images)

At the finale, the seasons had resolutely turned to winter, with the models all sporting monogrammed blankets over their shoulders as though off for a winter picnic in Hyde Park, Cara leading the way.

As Burberry looks to a future without its chief executive Angela Ahrendts, the talented Mr Bailey has today given us a beautiful and telling representation of the natural changing of the seasons. The only thing missing was the falling leaves at the end.