Well Done,
Old Chap!
As Burberry turns 170, its most famous creation can look back on an unusually eventful life. The trench coat has witnessed the British Empire, two world wars, the Swinging Sixties, punk, and logomania, as well as the rise of social media. It has travelled to the Arctic and the South Pole, marched through trenches, and appeared on cinema screens. Not bad for a simple raincoat.
(From the Archives) “The minute you spot it from like a mile off, you know.” “I think it’s a combination of heritage and tradition.” “It’s like a power.” “It’s iconic and seriously sexy.” “It’s confidence.” “Kind of defines you.” “That is what will make something last forever and ever and ever and ever…” The voices belong to models, actors, musicians, and athletes—all gathered for Burberry’s 170th-anniversary campaign Portraits of an Icon. Together, the remarks form a snapshot not just of a garment, but of the affection, nostalgia, and cultural cachet attached to the trench coat after more than a century of wear.
Photographed by the legendary photographer Tim Walker in intimate black-and-white portraits, the cast includes fashion icons Kate Moss and Kendall Jenner, actresses Teyana Taylor and Kristin Scott Thomas, rapper Little Simz, tennis player Jack Draper, and many more. Listening to them describe Burberry’s famous trench coat, one notices something curious: almost nobody mentions the use of weatherproof fabrics, military advances, or technical innovation. Instead, they talk about confidence, identity, and attitude.
Which raises an interesting question: when does functional clothing become fashion? Why does a coat originally designed for military officers continue to inspire opinion makers around the world? Why does it appear, decade after decade, on every list of wardrobe essentials? And how did an ingenious solution to bad weather become one of fashion’s most enduring symbols?
The Burberry trench: a shield against the weather and a canvas for self-expression.
Typical British
This very British story begins, appropriately enough, with rain. Unlike many luxury houses, Burberry was not born in a glamorous capital city atelier. Before founding his company, Thomas Burberry trained in the textile trade as a draper’s apprentice, learning the business from the ground up. When he opened his first shop in Basingstoke, Hampshire, in 1856, he was just 21 years old. Burberry’s ambition was remarkably practical: to create clothing that could withstand the notoriously unpredictable British weather. Britain is a nation that spends a great deal of time outdoors despite having every reason to stay inside. Rain is frequent, heavy wool garments of the 19th century were uncomfortable, and existing waterproof fabrics tended to trap heat and moisture.
In 1879, Burberry introduced gabardine, an innovative weather-resistant fabric. Its yarns were treated before weaving, allowing it to repel rain while remaining breathable. Typically woven in a tight twill structure, gabardine offered a lighter and more comfortable alternative to the rubberized waterproof fabrics of the era. Its genius came from small pockets of air which allowed for ventilation. This innovative fabric would become the foundation on which the company built its reputation.
People with Concerns
Long before modern-day fashion campaigns, Burberry was associated with people who had more pressing concerns than style. Explorers adopted gabardine for expeditions into some of the harshest environments on earth. The first recorded polar explorer to take Burberry to the Arctic was the Norwegian adventurer and future Nobel Peace Prize winner Fridtjof Nansen. Sir Ernest Shackleton wore Burberry during his Antarctic explorations, while both Roald Amundsen and Captain Robert Falcon Scott relied on Burberry tents and outerwear in their race to the South Pole. Few brands can claim that both sides of one of history’s most famous exploration races trusted the same equipment.
Later, Burberry would accompany another milestone: in 1919, Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Brown wore Burberry flying suits while completing the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic. The company’s early ambassadors were not celebrities but men testing the limits of human endurance. Few marketing departments would dare invent a narrative involving polar expeditions, sub-zero temperatures, and survival. Burberry didn’t have to. It was already there.
Stuck on the Details
The trench coat itself emerged from another defining chapter in history. Its predecessor, the Tielocken coat, was patented by Thomas Burberry in 1912. During the First World War, Burberry supplied officers with coats that were lighter and more functional than traditional military outerwear, and the design evolved into what we now know as the trench coat. Elements that today seem decorative were originally solutions to specific problems. Epaulettes displayed rank. D-rings held equipment. Storm flaps provided additional protection from rain and wind.
Its name comes from the trenches of the First World War, where British officers wore the coat in the most challenging conditions imaginable. More than a century later, its military origins remain visible in details that most wearers rarely think about.
“Here’s looking at you, kid.”
Best Supporting Role
The coat’s transition from military necessity to cultural icon occurred gradually. Cinema played a significant role. Humphrey Bogart wore one in Casablanca. Audrey Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich sported theirs in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and A Foreign Affair. In the era of film noir, the trench coat became the unofficial uniform of detectives, journalists, spies, and mysterious strangers arriving at foggy railway stations. If a screenplay required intelligence, intrigue, or emotional complexity, someone usually ended up wearing a trench coat.
Fashion magazines revisit the ultimate wardrobe essentials every year. The list rarely changes: a white shirt, good denim, a tailored blazer, a little black dress or a custom-made suit. Brands come and go, opinions differ, but then comes the fifth item. Cue the trumpets: the trench coat. And here the debate all but ends. The Burberry trench defines the category.
Unlike most fashion classics, these coats are not tied to a particular generation. Many people inherit theirs rather than purchasing. A well-made trench is often passed from parent to child, occasionally resurfacing decades later looking surprisingly at ease in an entirely different fashion area. Through the company’s ReBurberry repair and restoration program, customers can have their Burberry products cleaned, repaired, and refreshed—a sensible service for garments that are often old enough to have collected a few stories of their own. Few luxury purchases can claim the same longevity.
Hidden Beauties
The trench coat’s real talent lies in its ability to belong almost anywhere. It looks equally convincing on a film star arriving at a premiere, an architect cycling across Copenhagen, or a student making a quick dash to the corner shop on a rainy Tuesday morning. Fashion is famously obsessed with the new. The trench coat, by contrast, has spent more than a century reminding us that some ideas arrive fully formed.
However, even the best leading actor needs a memorable supporting cast: in this case, the Burberry check. Introduced in the 1920s as the lining of its raincoats, the company’s now-signature check pattern spent years hidden from view. Then in 1967, a sales assistant in Burberry’s Paris store had a bright idea while preparing a presentation for the British ambassador. She removed the checked lining from a coat and used the fabric to cover luggage and create an umbrella sleeve. Customers noticed. Before long, the check had escaped the inside of the coat and embarked on a remarkably successful solo career. Perhaps even a little too successful. The pattern has been copied, counterfeited, and reproduced on almost every product imaginable.
Once associated with discreet British luxury, the check became so ubiquitous in the early 2000s that it risked overwhelming the brand itself. Burberry spent years carefully rebalancing its image, a process continued under successive creative leaders including Christopher Bailey, Riccardo Tisci, and now Daniel Lee. Lee’s approach has largely been a return to fundamentals. Rather than searching for an entirely new Burberry, he has focused on the elements that made the house distinctive in the first place: Britishness, craftsmanship, outerwear, and the spirit of adventure that has shaped the brand’s identity. It is a perspective that is particularly visible in this year’s anniversary campaign. Black-and-white portraits present actors beside musicians, athletes alongside models. The cast spans generations, professions, and continents. What connects them is that certain undefinable coolness for which Burberry is internationally famed.
After 170 years, the trench coat remains instantly recognizable to people who know little about fashion and to those who know far too much. It has survived wars, changing tastes, cultural reinventions, and countless predictions about what modern wardrobes should look like. Fashion rarely rewards permanence; its business model depends on change. Yet every so often, a piece escapes the cycle. The trench coat did. Most trends are lucky to survive a season. This one has survived two world wars, several generations of fashion editors, and the early 2000s.
PR
