Burberry Celebrates 170 Years of British Craftsmanship With Landmark V&A Exhibition
Few garments have achieved the cultural recognition of the Burberry trench coat. In September 2026, Burberry and the Victoria and Albert Museum will celebrate this enduring expression of British design with The Burberry Trench: Crafting an Icon, an exhibition bringing together rare pieces from the Burberry Archive and the V&A collection.
Opening at V&A South Kensington on September 21, 2026, the exhibition coincides with Burberry’s 170th anniversary and traces the evolution of the trench from functional outerwear into an internationally recognised symbol of British luxury.
For The 1%, the exhibition reflects a growing intersection between fashion, art, craftsmanship and cultural collecting. According to Altrata’s World Ultra Wealth Report 2026, the global Ultra High Net Worth population reached approximately 556,850 individuals in 2025, collectively holding more than $63.8 trillion in wealth. This influential audience increasingly participates across multiple collecting categories, including art, jewellery, watches, automobiles, design and fashion.
At the V&A, Burberry will place one of its defining creations within precisely this cultural context.
From Innovation to British Icon
The story begins in 1879 with Thomas Burberry’s invention of cotton gabardine.
The innovative fabric became fundamental to the development of Burberry outerwear, combining functionality, protection and distinctive design. Its qualities eventually became integral to the trench coat, establishing a garment that would travel from practical and military environments into international fashion.
The V&A exhibition will explore this evolution through three themes: Invention, Craft and Creativity.
Invention examines the development of gabardine and the technical thinking that shaped the early Burberry trench.
Craft takes visitors inside the construction of the coat itself, highlighting details including its hand finished collar, House Check lining, storm flap and detachable throat latch. Each component reflects the relationship between purpose and craftsmanship that has defined the design across generations.
Creativity brings the story into contemporary fashion through 19 runway looks created during the past 25 years.
Together, these chapters reveal how a functional object became part of global visual culture.
Inside the Burberry Archive
One of the exhibition’s significant attractions for collectors will be access to rarely presented material from Burberry’s archive.
Objects ranging from early twentieth century catalogues to historic garments will illustrate how the identity of the trench developed across different eras. A Burberry trench once worn by British fashion designer Hardy Amies will also form part of the presentation.
For collectors, archives provide an essential connection between an object and its provenance.
A vintage garment, historical sketch, original catalogue or early example of a celebrated design can reveal the evolution of an entire creative language. These objects carry cultural memory alongside craftsmanship, qualities that resonate strongly within the collecting habits of Ultra High Net Worth Individuals.
Research from the Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2025 demonstrates the scale of this relationship with culture. Ultra High Net Worth collectors with wealth exceeding $50 million allocated an average of 28 percent of their wealth to art.
While the Burberry trench belongs to fashion and design, the motivations surrounding exceptional fashion objects can share qualities with fine art collecting: provenance, rarity, craftsmanship, authorship and cultural significance.
The Art of the Trench
The exhibition’s final chapter will explore the creative reinvention of Burberry’s signature coat.
Nineteen runway looks will showcase interpretations developed across the past two and a half decades, including creations associated with Christopher Bailey and current Chief Creative Officer Daniel Lee.
The trench becomes a creative canvas through proportion, construction, material and styling.
This relationship between form and artistic expression also creates a subtle dialogue with the wider V&A collection. Fashion can communicate through silhouette and texture, sculpture through volume and material, and abstract art through form, gesture and composition. Each discipline provides its own vocabulary for creative expression.
For collectors who move naturally between fashion, art and collectible design, these intersections contribute to an increasingly sophisticated understanding of luxury as culture.
Craftsmanship as Collectible Value
The Burberry trench also represents something particularly important within contemporary luxury: identifiable craftsmanship.
Its construction incorporates details developed around function and protection. The collar, lining, storm flap and throat latch each possess a purpose while contributing to the coat’s instantly recognisable aesthetic identity.
For The 1%, craftsmanship increasingly forms part of the intellectual and emotional appeal surrounding collectible objects.
The Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2025 found that 80 percent of surveyed collectors across generations intended to pass their collections to children or spouses. This emphasis on inheritance illustrates how collecting can evolve into cultural and family legacy.
Exceptional fashion pieces can participate in the same conversation.
An object with provenance can preserve a particular moment in design history. An archival garment can document the vision of a creative director. A signature piece can become associated with personal history and eventually pass between generations.
Burberry’s 170 year history gives the trench a particularly rich foundation for this form of cultural appreciation.
Burberry and the V&A Deepen Their Cultural Partnership
The exhibition also represents another chapter in the relationship between Burberry and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Both institutions occupy important positions within British creative culture. Burberry brings a heritage rooted in fashion, craftsmanship and innovation, while the V&A preserves thousands of years of art, design, fashion, photography, architecture, furniture and decorative arts.
Their collaboration will extend significantly in 2028.
The Burberry Gallery, supported by the fashion house, is scheduled to open at V&A South Kensington in autumn 2028 as part of a major transformation of the museum’s fashion galleries.
The redesigned space will create a permanent environment through which visitors can engage with fashion history, craftsmanship and creativity.
For luxury houses, participation in cultural institutions also contributes to the preservation of specialist knowledge. Archives become accessible to researchers, designers and future generations, while craftsmanship enters a broader conversation about cultural heritage.
Fashion Becomes Part of the Cultural Collection
For today’s Ultra High Net Worth collector, the boundaries between collecting disciplines continue to converge.
A private collection can encompass contemporary paintings, abstract art, sculpture, photography, jewellery, watches, automobiles, furniture and historically significant fashion. What connects these objects is often the story behind them.
Burberry’s trench possesses many of these qualities.
It has identifiable origins. It carries technical innovation. It embodies specialist craftsmanship. It has evolved through generations of creative leadership. It also remains closely associated with British cultural identity.
At the V&A, these dimensions will be presented through objects capable of documenting 170 years of creative history.
A British Icon Enters the Museum
The Burberry Trench: Crafting an Icon will open in the Prince Consort Gallery at V&A South Kensington on September 21, 2026 and continue until January 3, 2027.
The location carries its own historical resonance. The gallery once housed textiles within its mahogany cabinets, making it an evocative setting for an exhibition dedicated to fabric, construction and fashion heritage.
For The 1%, the exhibition offers an opportunity to look beyond the familiar silhouette of the trench and understand the innovation, craftsmanship and creative thinking behind it.
From Thomas Burberry’s development of gabardine in 1879 to contemporary runway interpretations by Daniel Lee, the story represents 170 years of British creativity expressed through one extraordinary garment.
Within the museum, the trench becomes more than clothing. It becomes an archive of craftsmanship, innovation and cultural identity, preserving the enduring relationship between luxury and the art of making.
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