170 Years of the Trench Coat: Burberry's Archive Opens to the Public at the V&A

The Prince Consort Gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) South Kensington is hosting a display dedicated to the Burberry trench coat from 21 September 2026 through 3 January 2027. Entry is free and requires no advance booking, and the exhibition has been staged to mark Burberry's 170th anniversary.

The display centres on the story that began when Thomas Burberry invented cotton gabardine in 1879, a fabric that turned the trench coat into a garment that was both protective and stylish. The exhibition is organised into three sections — Invention, Craft, and Creativity — with the final section spotlighting 19 standout runway looks drawn from the past two and a half decades, including designs by Daniel Lee and Christopher Bailey.

Burberry's Brand Curator Carly Eck noted that among the archive pieces going on public display for the first time is a Burberry trench coat once worn by Hardy Amies, alongside items such as early 20th-century catalogues. Oriole Cullen, the V&A's Senior Curator of Fashion and Textiles, said the display comes ahead of the museum's forthcoming partnership with Burberry on a new Fashion Gallery.

That wider collaboration includes plans for the Burberry Gallery, supported by Burberry, which is set to open in autumn 2028 as part of a major transformation of the V&A's fashion galleries, continuing what has been described as a multi-year partnership between the two institutions.