Returning home to Burberry London is a homage to Hockney and Bennett

Christopher Bailey's collection for Burberry is titled ' writers and painters. Photograph: Rex Features

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, even more fickle industries. Burberry's return to London after a decade the catwalks of Milan fashion men always was going to be a blockbuster show – but in case it was also an emotional return. Designer Christopher Bailey has created a subtle, nuanced that moved beyond the obvious Pole stars of British menswear (Savile Row, punk, Bond, gent) to celebrate the most eccentric, colorful, unusual style of David Hockney and Alan Bennett.

"I once saw David Hockney on Jermyn Street, wearing a cream linen dress with a stain of perfect green paint on it," Bailey said backstage after the show. "I love the way that HOCKNEY wearing colors, so that you're never completely safe as deliberately look is put together." The role of Alan Bennett as portrayed by Alex Jennings in the production of the national theatre of Anthem led Bailey to rediscover the joys of colored ties in contrast to knitwear. The result was a collection entitled "writers and artists", which Bailey described as "a celebration of the artistic and intellectual spirit". The return of felt in London, said Bailey, as "such a treat."

The first model on the catwalk wore a blue shirt with tie tomato red under a green sweater; Another wore a simple update of the blue jackets where flax was often photographed Hockney, hands thrust in pockets on a shirt emerald green. Colman's mustard yellow, a hue Hockney has often opted for trousers, appeared in soft lace-up shoes and leather Duffel bags. But while colors flirted with eccentricity, the slender silhouette, sleek and portable. With jackets that end to the pelvis and cropped trousers neatly at the ankle bone, the lines were crisp and clean rather than crumpled and Bohemia. At the catwalk, these clothes are designed for a client of Elito, but the message of fashion – color, abbreviated length trousers, a very British look, which is neither dandy punk — is strong, simple and wearable enough to reach the huge audience of Burberry, which has 2.1 million Twitter followers.

The male psyche being what it is, conflict and bluster has always been a part of human history, but a key story of these shows to menswear in London was a reframing of the debate around British men and fashion. The story moves by the opposition between the camps of loopy, creativity fashion college and tradition of Savile Row, a healthy sense of creative tension. As shown in the London menswear growth in stature, so does the sense of British menswear as a broad church that can support more than one set of values. After all, it was a Savile Row apprenticeship for a rebel Central Saint Martins trained East End boy, Alexander McQueen, which sparked one of the great geniuses of modern fashion. Mayor Boris Johnson has launched yesterday a map of menswear in London showing the birthplace of English key inventions by suit, to start Wellington, for Bondage pants. Johnson, wearing brogues, a tie to M S and overalls & from a Savile Row tailor ("can't really remember his name, jolly nice chap but") extolled the virtues of the British, Johnson's sartorial rendering "was developed as a direct response to French fashion flimflammery."

Two centuries ago, ' dandy appearance of Beau Brummell was immediately pounced upon with the satire by contemporaries — yet it is vanity Brummell British men have to thank for the passage from zuava full length trousers, a development of rim the least would recognize dandyish, with the benefit of hindsight, as progress. The fashion runways man in London have shown that mens ' hemlines are, rather surprisingly, still in the making. The prowess pasarell – cycling shorts and Culottes, anyone? — trouser shortened, cut the end shy of the top of the shoe has been a staple of the first row and the catwalk. Tom Ford, a showcase for the new collection in Mayfair – lavish spectacle in perfect harmony with the hymn of Burberry in color-highlighted how the legs of trousers were cut shorter, so that the sharp pants were not the embarrassment of puddling on the shoe. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum from Ford's luxury label, the showcase for the collection of Marks Spencer's menswear & British-made — which includes pastel cashmere sweaters are safe for those who seek the Burberry or Tom Ford look without the pricetag-pants had reduced this season, from "one inch to an inch and a half," said menswear head Tony O'Connor"that is just enough to give that clean line over the shoe, but not so much that a man is going to feel like he is at half mast."

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