Thomas Burberry

A Draper's Apprentice and a Fabric Invention

Thomas Burberry's foundation was a material. He had been a draper's apprentice before opening his own store in Basingstoke in 1856 at the age of 21, and by 1870 the business was well established and focused on outdoors attire — clothing for people whose work and sport exposed them to British weather. The problem of that clothing is a contradiction: a coat must keep rain out yet let the wearer move and breathe, and the rubberised fabrics of the time solved the first half by failing the second. Gabardine, invented in 1880, solved both halves by changing where the waterproofing happens. The yarn is waterproofed before weaving, so the finished cloth is hardwearing and water-resistant yet still breathable — protection built into the thread rather than coated onto the surface. The patent followed in 1888, protecting the invention as the business asset it was. A clothing company founded on a patented fabric owns something competitors cannot simply copy, and Burberry's next half-century was built on that advantage.

Explorers, Officers and the Trench Coat

The Haymarket emporium in London opened in 1891 and still stands as the company's headquarters — the move from a Hampshire market town to the capital. The commissions that followed tested gabardine at the extremes. In 1901 the War Office commissioned the company to design a new service uniform for British officers. The company became outfitter to Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole in 1911, and to Ernest Shackleton on his 1914 expedition to cross Antarctica. Polar exploration was the period's most public test of clothing: if a fabric kept Amundsen alive at the Pole, its weatherproofing needed no further argument. When war broke out in 1914, the company modified its military designs for the conditions of contemporary warfare encountered by British troops, and the trench coat was created — a gabardine officer's coat adapted to the trenches, named for where it was worn. After the war civilians adopted it, and it passed into culture through Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther films and Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Few garments travel that whole road, from War Office commission to Hollywood icon, without changing their essential design.

The Check: From Lining to Trademark to Problem

The famous check had a modest beginning: the red, white, black and camel check, known as the Nova, was first used as a lining for the trench coat in 1924 — visible only when the coat was open or turned back. Only in 1967, with the check registered as a trademark, was it widely used on its own, on umbrellas, scarves and luggage. That migration, from hidden lining to public signature, made Burberry one of the most recognisable and therefore most copied brands in the world; the check is described as one of its most commonly copied trademarks. The company, bought by Great Universal Stores in 1955, received Royal Warrants from both Queen Elizabeth and the Prince of Wales, and after a new management team arrived in 1997 the brand was revitalised, widening from an upper-middle-class preserve to celebrity patronage including David and Victoria Beckham and hip-hop artists.

The check's popularity then overshot. During the 1980s the brand had become popular with the British football casual cult, and by the 2000s the check was associated with hooligan culture; the Burberry check baseball cap was discontinued in 2004 to distance the company from that image, and weak Christmas 2004 sales in Britain were blamed on it. The episode completes the founder's story with a lesson he never faced: a trademark strong enough to sell umbrellas and luggage on sight is also strong enough to be adopted by crowds its owner never chose. Thomas Burberry built the company on a fabric nobody could see working. His successors had to manage a pattern everybody could see — and could not control.