
Exhibition preview·London
V&A Opens Free Exhibition on Burberry's Trench Coat Heritage
The Burberry Trench: Crafting an Icon opened September 21 at V&A South Kensington, tracing the coat from Thomas Burberry's gabardine invention to the runway. The free display marks Burberry's 170th anniversary.
The exhibition, hosted in the Prince Consort Gallery, is structured in three sections — Invention, Craft and Creativity — examining Thomas Burberry's 1879 invention of cotton gabardine, the signature structural details of the trench, and 19 runway looks from the past 25 years by Christopher Bailey and Daniel Lee. Rare archival artifacts from Burberry's and the V&A's archives are shown alongside historic garments. It runs through January 3, 2027 and lays groundwork for the multi-year Burberry partnership ahead of The Burberry Gallery opening in autumn 2028.


