To celebrate its 170th anniversary, Burberry launches a global campaign honoring the trench coat, the piece that has defined the house&rsquo;s identity for over a century.

To mark its 170th anniversary, Burberry unveils The Trench: Portraits of an Icon, a global campaign dedicated to the garment that has come to define the house. More than a coat, the trench stands as one of the clearest symbols of British style, where practicality and attitude meet.
The story begins in 1879, when founder Thomas Burberry invented gabardine, a revolutionary fabric designed to resist rain while allowing freedom of movement. Since then, each trench has carried that same dual identity, protection from the elements and a canvas for personal expression. With its belted waist, raised collar, and unmistakable silhouette, the trench has become a global visual language.

Photographed by British photographer Tim Walker, the campaign gathers 23 figures from film, music, sport, and fashion. Shot in black and white, the portraits highlight the trench in its most essential form, letting personality carry the image.
Among the cast are Kate Moss, Kendall Jenner, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Little Simz, Jack Draper, Jonathan Bailey, Teyana Taylor, and Wu Lei. Together they form a cross-generational portrait of contemporary culture.
Creative director Daniel Lee describes the project as an invitation for members of the creative community to bring the trench to life, celebrating both the icon itself and the craftsmanship behind it.

At the center of the anniversary is the Heritage Collection, which continues to feature five core trench silhouettes, Kensington, Waterloo, Chelsea, Camden, and the newly introduced Mayfair, a shorter, more contemporary cut.
Each coat is produced in England at the Castleford factory, where the house has maintained its outerwear craftsmanship for more than fifty years. The cotton gabardine used in the collection is now fully organic for both the outer fabric and lining, maintaining the durability and structure that made the trench famous.
Alongside these classics, newer interpretations such as Fitzrovia and Ellingham experiment with proportion, widening sleeves and emphasizing the waist. The coats also appear in tropical gabardine, the lightest version of the fabric, offered in shades like pale pink, stone beige, and graphite grey.
A documentary film accompanies the campaign, set to music by Blur, capturing conversations between the featured talents and the teams behind the project. The result sketches a portrait of contemporary British creativity, open, confident, and collaborative.

For CEO Joshua Schulman, the trench remains one of the house&rsquo;s most powerful signatures. Rooted deeply in British culture, it continues to inspire individuality while staying true to the identity that built the brand.
Across Burberry boutiques worldwide, immersive displays and large-scale installations accompany the campaign, presenting the trench somewhere between fashion object and cultural artifact.
One hundred and seventy years after its founding, Burberry isn&rsquo;t just revisiting its history. It&rsquo;s reaffirming the power of a garment that continues to define the present.

The Trench, Portraits of an Icon

Courtesy of Burberry.

Burberry Marks 170 Years With a Tribute to the Trench

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