Burberry Celebrates 170 Years With ‘The Trench: Portraits of an Icon’

As Burberry marks its 170th anniversary, the house has unveiled The Trench: Portraits of an Icon, a global campaign dedicated to one of fashion’s most enduring designs. Photographed by Tim Walker under the creative direction of Daniel Lee, the series positions the trench coat not simply as outerwear but as a defining symbol of British style.

At the centre of the campaign is the coat that shaped Burberry’s legacy. First made possible through founder Thomas Burberry’s invention of gabardine in 1879, the trench introduced a new approach to outerwear. The fabric was engineered to resist the elements while remaining lightweight and breathable. More than a century later, that balance between function and elegance still defines the design.

Walker’s black and white portraits capture the trench through a contemporary cultural lens. Each image feels instinctive and understated, revealing the coat in motion through subtle gestures such as a raised collar or a loosely tied belt. The result is a campaign that feels both archival and modern, reinforcing the trench as a piece that adapts across generations.

The cast reflects that cultural reach. Figures from film, music, fashion and sport appear throughout the series, including Kate Moss, Kendall Jenner, Jack Draper and Kid Cudi. Each portrait offers a different interpretation of the same garment, highlighting how the trench has evolved from military practicality into a global style reference.

Alongside the campaign imagery, Burberry has expanded its Heritage Collection, reinforcing the craft behind the design. Signature silhouettes including the Kensington, Waterloo and Chelsea trench coats return alongside the Camden car coat, joined by the newly introduced Mayfair trench jacket with a modern cropped cut. Each piece continues to be made in England at the Castleford manufacturing site, where specialist tailors have produced Burberry rainwear for more than five decades.

The cotton gabardine used across the collection is woven at the Burberry mill in Keighley, Yorkshire, maintaining a fully British production lineage. The fabric is designed to retain its structure while remaining lightweight, ensuring the clean lines that have long defined the trench.

New interpretations also appear within the wider collection. Designs such as the Fitzrovia trench and Ellingham car coat introduce softer volume through wider sleeves and fuller silhouettes, offering a contemporary evolution of the house’s archive. Meanwhile, lightweight tropical gabardine expands the trench’s relevance for warmer climates, arriving in a refined palette of pale pink, stone beige and graphite grey.

To bring the campaign into the retail space, Burberry is unveiling a series of global installations and window displays dedicated entirely to the trench. Flagship locations including Regent Street in London, Isetan Shinjuku in Tokyo, Lotte Main in Seoul and 57th Street in New York will host gallery style displays pairing the portraits with the coats themselves. The installations reinforce the trench’s place as both a design object and a cultural symbol.

For Burberry, the campaign marks more than a milestone anniversary. It opens a wider celebration of the house’s archive, craftsmanship and British identity, a legacy that continues to shape the brand today.

For a house built on outerwear innovation, the trench remains its clearest signature. Practical in origin, expressive in spirit and unmistakably Burberry.