The Victoria and Albert Museum is preparing to open its doors to one of British fashion's most recognizable garments. "The : Crafting an Icon" will run at V&A South Kensington from September 21, 2026 to January 3, 2027, landing inside the museum's rarely opened Prince Consort Gallery. The free display marks Burberry's 170th anniversary and gives the public a rare look at archival material that has never been shown before.
The timing is not accidental. September 21 also happens to be the day Burberry presents its spring 2027 collection during London Fashion Week, tying the brand's runway present to its historical roots in the same week.
The History of Burberry and the Trench Coat
Burberry's story begins in 1856, when Thomas Burberry opened a small outfitters shop in Basingstoke. His breakthrough came in 1879 with the invention of gabardine, a tightly woven, water resistant cotton fabric that could breathe in ways rubberized rainwear could not. That innovation eventually led to the coat soldiers wore in the trenches of the First World War, giving the garment both its name and its original purpose.
What started as practical military outerwear slowly worked its way into everyday wardrobes throughout the twentieth century, picking up new relevance through cinema, street style, and decades of runway reinterpretation. Few fashion houses have built an entire identity around a single piece of clothing, but the trench coat has remained Burberry's defining product for well over a century.
What People Can Expect at the Exhibit
Oriole Cullen, Senior Curator of Fashion and Textiles at the V&A, has structured the display around three themes: Invention, Craft, and Creativity. The first section looks at Thomas Burberry's original development of gabardine and its early military applications. The second focuses on the construction techniques and tailoring detail that give the coat its distinct silhouette. The third traces its creative evolution on the runway, bringing together nineteen looks from the past twenty five years, including designs from former creative directors Christopher Bailey and Daniel Lee.
Visitors can expect items that have never left Burberry's private archive, among them early twentieth century catalogues and a personal trench coat once worn by British designer Hardy Amies. The setting itself adds to the moment, since the Prince Consort Gallery once housed the V&A's own textile collection inside its original mahogany cabinets, a detail the museum has preserved for this display.
This exhibition also builds toward something larger. Burberry and the V&A are partway through a multi year partnership that will eventually transform the museum's long standing Fashion Gallery into a new space named The Burberry Gallery. That larger renovation, originally expected in spring 2027, has since shifted to autumn 2028, making this trench coat display something of a preview of the collaboration to come.
Why This Burberry Exhibit Is Worth Visiting Before It Closes
For anyone with an interest in British design history, this display offers a rare chance to see how one garment shaped an entire brand identity across nearly 150 years. The exhibition does not require a ticket or advance booking, which makes it an easy addition to any London itinerary before it closes in early January. Whether the appeal is the fashion history, the craftsmanship, or simply the chance to see the Prince Consort Gallery in its current form, the display gives visitors a compact but detailed look at how a wartime coat became one of the most photographed garments in modern fashion.
