Few nations have made quite so much of their weather as the British, and few houses have answered it with quite such elegance as Burberry. Some 170 years after the house was founded, “The Burberry Trench: Crafting an Icon” opens at the V&A South Kensington, celebrating the most refined coat in the menswear canon and tracing its life as an exceptionally clever piece of weatherproofing.
The museum’s Prince Consort Gallery, whose mahogany cabinets once held fabrics from the V&A’s celebrated textile collection, rarely opens its doors to the public. It proves a fitting home for a story that begins in 1879 with Thomas Burberry’s invention of cotton gabardine, the cloth that would make the trench one of the most sought-after pieces of protective outerwear of the century that followed.
The display unfolds in three chapters. The first, “Invention”, traces that origin story, following the trench from its early life as military attire to its adoption by fashion insiders, British icons and anyone with an eye for enduring style. “Craft” turns to the workmanship that has long defined Burberry’s legacy, from the hand-finished collar and detachable throat latch to the storm flap and the famous House Check lining, and reveals the details that have allowed the coat to age so gracefully.
The final chapter, “Creativity”, builds to a crescendo of nineteen runway looks from the past two and a half decades, by Chief Creative Officers Christopher Bailey and Daniel Lee. Seen at full scale and side by side, they offer a rare chance to appreciate how far the silhouette has been lengthened, cropped, recut and reimagined across the seasons, while remaining unmistakably itself.
Much of what is on show comes from the house archive and is being exhibited publicly for the first time, including early 20th-century catalogues and a trench once worn by Hardy Amies. Overhead, a ceiling of clouds takes its cue from John Constable’s oil painting of Hampstead Heath in the V&A collection, a gentle reminder of the skies that made the coat necessary in the first place.
With the autumn and winter season now under way, the timing could hardly be better. The display is free and runs until 3 January 2027, and serves as an opening act for something larger still. In 2028, the V&A’s fashion galleries will be transformed into the Burberry Gallery, supported by the house through a multi-year partnership. For now, this is archive material well worth the journey.
