Burberry

Burberry was founded in 1856 by Thomas Burberry, a 21-year-old draper in Basingstoke who developed gabardine — a tightly woven, weatherproof cotton — in 1879 by patenting a chemical treatment process. The fabric was lightweight, breathable, and rain-resistant, and it became the foundation of British officer wear in the South African and First World Wars: the trench coat as we now know it was substantially Burberry's design, including the D-rings, the gun flap, the wrist straps, and the storm pocket. The house signature beyond the trench is the Burberry Check (originally an inner lining for the trench, made public in the 1920s, redesigned several times since). Burberry's relationship to British identity has been complicated — co-opted by the 'chav' subculture in the 2000s, then carefully rebuilt under Christopher Bailey (2001-2018) into a global luxury brand. Riccardo Tisci's tenure (2018-2022) tried for a logo-rich Tisci-Burberry reset; Daniel Lee took over in 2023 and is currently mid-transition under new CEO Joshua Schulman. Burberry is listed on the London Stock Exchange. The Castleford rainwear factory in Yorkshire still produces Heritage trench coats by hand — about 100 separate operations per coat. The 'Made in England' Heritage label is one of the few authentic links to a traditional British craft anchor that survives in modern luxury at scale.