Burberry News, Collections, Fashion Shows, Fashion Week Reviews, and More

The name Burberry may evoke tradition and timeless standards of quality, but the company has been a real force for innovation since its founding. In 1856, young Thomas Burberry set out to equip local sportsmen from a small outfitter’s shop in Basingstoke, England. He made his name by inventing gabardine, a waterproof, tightly woven cotton inspired by the loose linen smocks worn by English shepherds and farmers.Lightweight, breathable, and highly durable, the material was nothing short of revolutionary. And by the early 1900s, business was booming in the Burberry emporium on London’s Haymarket street. The firm gained prestige by outfitting high-profile Antarctic explorers, aviators, and mountaineers. And, in addition to kitting out more humble seekers of adventure—golfers, skiers, horsemen—it soon got into the business of fine everyday outerwear, too.But Burberry’s best known, and still greatest, claim to fame is, of course, the trenchcoat. Devised for British troops fighting in World War I, it was fitted with epaulets and D-rings for grenades. Later, the double-breasted weather-beater was adapted for civilian wear, gussied up with storm flaps and lined with the signature Burberry check.In the late ’90s, Rose Marie Bravo came on board as CEO. The Bronx-born dynamo swept the cobwebs out of the by then slightly musty old house and began laying the foundation for a modern luxury brand. At the dawn of the millennium, the newly revamped Burberry competed with the likes of Gucci and Louis Vuitton in satiating the public’s appetite for logos and status symbols. Christopher Bailey was brought in in 2001 as design director; he reined in the runaway pattern, and by 2010 it featured prominently on less than 10 percent of products. Bailey turned what was essentially still an outerwear and accessories company into an industry favorite. Season after season, the label’s archives provided a launch pad from which he took a flying leap into a very modern present. Relocating its shows to its home country in 2009 from Milan, where it had shown for years, Burberry made London Fashion Week an essential part of the fashion calendar. Bailey exited the house in early 2018 to spend more time with his husband and two young children. Riccardo Tisci, who gave street wear runway legitimacy and designed red carpet-ready couture at Givenchy, held the reins at the brand for nearly five years. In 2022, Daniel Lee, formerly of Bottega Veneta, was installed as Chief Creative Officer.