Burberry marks 170 years with a global campaign shot on 170 people

Burberry rolled out a global campaign on Monday to mark its 170th anniversary, putting ten of its most recognizable outerwear styles on 170 people drawn from the brand's own community rather than a cast of professional models. Titled "170: The Anniversary Portraits," the project was shot across London, New York, Seoul and Shanghai.

The cast mixes creative collaborators, street-cast locals and long-standing employees, some of whom have worked for the house for more than 45 years. Named participants include the model Lila Moss, the River Café chef Ruthie Rogers and the veteran model Pat Cleveland, alongside South Korean singer Crush and theater director Jamie Lloyd.

Sport and music are represented too: soccer player Nico O'Reilly, basketball player OG Anunoby, ballet dancer Tan Yuanyuan and South Korean volleyball player Yeonkoung Kim all appear. Editor Lisa Love and director Xin Shuang round out a cast that spans art, literature, sport and music rather than a single industry.

Who else made the cut

Burberry also photographed its own staff. Richard Kessell, senior vice president of commercial finance, joined the company as a financial controller in 2002, and Dawn Bullingham, who works at the factory in Castleford, has been with the house for 46 years. Their inclusion sets the campaign apart from a purely celebrity-led anniversary push.

The ten styles range from the long Kensington and Waterloo trenchcoats of the heritage collection to the mid-length Camden car coat for men. Burberry, the house that invented gabardine in 1879 and dressed polar expeditions before it ever dressed a runway, is drawing directly on that archive for the shoot.

The trench appears further in burgundy napa leather and in a long cashmere version, while cashmere also turns up in the mid-length Hastings trench for men and a shearling-collared cape for women. Puffer and quilted pieces feature too, including the check Highlands and check Ambleside puffers.

Lighter quilted styles round out the selection: the Rosedale coat and the reversible Brighton overshirt. Outerwear is the category at the center of chief executive officer Joshua Schulman's Burberry Forward turnaround strategy, and the campaign is built entirely around it rather than a full collection.

Chief creative officer Daniel Lee said the outerwear "has adapted to the weather and the way we dress" for 170 years, and that "each portrait is different, but together they capture individuality and self-expression." Lee unveiled a separate collaboration with British textile designer Celia Birtwell just a week earlier, for the spring 2027 collection.

Photographer Jack Day framed each portrait against streetscapes specific to its city, a choice meant to show how the same wardrobe reads differently depending on who wears it and where. Burberry has described the project as a tribute to "The Art of the Trench," its 2009 digital initiative built around reader-submitted trench photography.

What the Harrods pop-up adds

Burberry is extending the anniversary into retail with a pop-up at Harrods in Knightsbridge, running from Friday through October 28. The space is inspired by the set design of the fall 2026 runway show and includes replicas of Tower Bridge and the London map motif first seen on that catwalk.

The pop-up will stock the same ten outerwear styles shown in the campaign, alongside a Burberry Scarf Bar and homeware. Shoppers can preorder an exclusive embroidered map coat, and the space adds a photo booth, bespoke London postcards and collectable zines tied to the campaign's imagery.

We have covered the trench coat as a wardrobe staple in our guides to the best trench coats for women and the best trench coats for men, both of which single out Burberry alongside rivals such as Saint Laurent and Canada Goose.

A Burberry trench also features in our gift guide as a piece worth owning for a decade or more, and is at the top of the no-limit tier alongside a Gucci Jackie bag and Rimowa luggage.

Burberry is not alone this year in marking a 170th birthday with a campaign built on a familiar face: Hunter marked its own 170th anniversary with a wellington boot campaign fronted by Kate Moss. Burberry's version spreads its attention across 170 named and unnamed sitters instead of a single star.

No pricing for the anniversary pieces or the preorder map coat has been disclosed, and Burberry has not said how long the campaign imagery will run across its channels. The Harrods pop-up gives the clearest near-term date, closing on October 28 after just over four weeks in Knightsbridge.

The breadth of the cast, spanning a chef, two athletes, a singer, a theater director and staff who joined the company decades apart, argues for outerwear as something worn across very different lives rather than dressed for one type of customer. That is the pitch behind Schulman's turnaround strategy as much as any single coat.