“The Burberry Trench: Crafting an Icon” has opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

The British fashion house’s exhibition went on view Sept. 21 in the museum’s Prince Consort Gallery and runs through Jan. 3, 2027. The free display, launched to celebrate the brand’s 170th anniversary, draws on rare material from its archive, additionally featuring items from the V&A collection.

“The Burberry trench is a global design icon rooted in British craftsmanship and a symbol of innovation, creativity and timeless style,” said Carly Eck, brand curator at Burberry, in a statement.

Invention, Craft, Creativity
The display is organized in three parts. “Invention” covers Thomas Burberry’s development of cotton gabardine in 1879 and how the fabric established the coat as protective outerwear, while “Craft” breaks down the hand-finished collar, House Check lining, storm flap and detachable throat latch.

“Creativity” closes the display with 19 runway looks from the past two and a half decades, including designs by chief creative officers Daniel Lee and Christopher Bailey. A ceiling of clouds, drawn from a John Constable oil painting of Hampstead Heath in the V&A collection, lights the final section.

The free exhibition draws on rare material from Burberry’s archive and the V&A collection to mark the house’s 170th anniversary. Image credit: Burberry

Several objects are being shown publicly for the first time, among them early 20th-century catalogs and a trench coat worn by the British couturier Hardy Amies.

The Prince Consort Gallery is rarely opened to the public. Its mahogany cabinets once held fabrics from the museum’s textile collection.

“The display includes a range of rarely seen objects from the Burberry Archive that tell the unique story of the Burberry trench,” said Oriole Cullen, senior curator of fashion and textiles at the V&A, in a statement.

The show precedes The Burberry Gallery, a redesign of the museum’s fashion galleries supported by the house and due to open in autumn 2028. The house announced the display in August (see story).