On 02 March 2026, Burberry launched “The Trench, Portraits of an Icon” as a brand-level statement: the trench coat as product, symbol, and cultural passport, shot by Tim Walker and backed by a documentary film scored to Blur’s “Sing.”
On 02 March 2026, Burberry launched “The Trench, Portraits of an Icon” as a brand-level statement: the trench coat as product, symbol, and cultural passport, shot by Tim Walker and backed by a documentary film scored to Blur’s “Sing.”
March 2, 2026
This campaign sits inside a bigger milestone: Burberry’s 170th anniversary year, with the trench positioned as the house’s clearest signature for bridging utility and style. Burberry links that lineage to gabardine, developed by founder Thomas Burberry in 1879, framing it as the technical root of the brand’s outerwear authority.
Burberry keeps the creative device unusually tight. Black-and-white portraits do two things at once: they strip away seasonal noise, and they force attention onto fit, posture, and gesture, the micro-theatre of how people wear a trench. Burberry’s own copy points to the details that matter on camera: collar up, belt loosely tied, the coat reading as both protection and self-expression.
“The Trench, Portraits of an Icon” runs on a deliberately broad cast across film, music, sport, and fashion, 23 names including Kate Moss, Kendall Jenner, Little Simz, Kid Cudi, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Jonathan Bailey, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, J.Y. Park, and more. The point feels strategic: the trench becomes a shared object that still absorbs individual styling, rather than a look that overwhelms the wearer.
Alongside the portraits, Burberry adds a documentary-style film built from candid exchanges between cast and crew, set to Blur’s “Sing.” The soundtrack choice cues a specific brand message: modern Britishness as creative confidence, with the trench as the wearable shorthand.
Burberry uses the moment to spotlight an expanded Heritage Collection and newer silhouettes. Heritage Collection core styles include Kensington, Waterloo, Chelsea, plus the Camden car coat, joined by the Mayfair trench jacket with a cropped cut. Burberry states these coats are made in England at Castleford, with fabrics woven at the Burberry Mill in Keighley, Yorkshire, and that the main material and body lining contain 100 percent organic cotton.
Beyond heritage, Burberry calls out Fitzrovia trench and Ellingham car coat for added volume through wider sleeves and a fuller skirt, plus warm-weather versions in tropical gabardine in pale tones and graphite grey.
“The Trench, Portraits of an Icon” is designed to live inside stores, with gallery-like windows pairing product with the black-and-white portraits. Burberry lists pop-ups at Regent Street London, Isetan Shinjuku Tokyo, Lotte Main Seoul, and 57th Street New York.
“The Trench, Portraits of an Icon” reads as a clean piece of brand engineering: one hero product, one disciplined visual language, one cross-generational cast, Burberry choosing clarity as the loudest move of 2026.
