“The Tale of Thomas Burberry”

Photo Courtesy of Burberry

There are many ways to kick off the festive season, all of which undoubtedly bring style and joy. Burberry, however chose to do so in a three-minute cinematic trailer entitled “The Tale of Thomas Burberry”, reenacting the company’s history and values in a series of real-life moments.

The campaign, written by Matt Charman and directed by Asif Kapadia, features Domhnall Gleeson as Burberry founder Thomas Burberry, while Sienna Miller stars as the lead’s first love. The key events of the brand’s history are portrayed through Dominic West’s enactment of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the pioneering polar explorer dressed in Burberry gabardine for three Antarctic expeditions and through Lily James’ performance as Betty Dawson. The latter, also known as Betty Kirby Green, set a new world record in 1937 for a return flight from England to Cape Town in “The Burberry”, the legendary airplane. One thing you’ll mostly notice throughout the documentary shot at Shirburn Castle in Oxfordshire, is the portrayal of Thomas’ weatherproof fabric gabardine he curated himself to dress the military, as well as polar explorers and pilots. Truly a moment to remember!

Thomas’ workshop featured in the three-minute trailer was entirely inspired by the materials in the Burberry Archive and the cast itself was dressed in Burberry attires that were mostly custom made!

 “This Christmas, as we celebrate our 160th anniversary we wanted to tell the story of Thomas Burberry – pioneer, inventor, innovator, and the man behind the iconic trench coat – in our own words. The film we have made is a brief glimpse inspired by his full and extraordinary life, which threaded its way through the history of the twentieth century in all its tumultuous highs and lows. To do justice to this story, we turned to a team of truly great twenty-first century British talent: Asif Kapadia, a director whose work I admire enormously, and a cast of our brightest and our best actors: Domhnall Gleeson, Sienna Miller, Dominic West and Lily James. We feel very proud to be sharing The Tale of Thomas Burberry this Christmas – his spirit and his vision are still at the heart of everything we do at Burberry today,” commented Christopher Bailey, Burberry Chief Creative and Chief Executive Officer.

As the film premieres today to kick-start the festive season, dedicated in store and online experiences and iconic gifts for men, women and the home have also been launched on this very day. What’s more, shorter edits will be appearing on Burberry’s digital and social platforms and of course, across digital and cinema advertising.

Well, we don’t know about you, but we can’t but applaud this absolute creativity!