Jonathan Bailey Featured Among 23 Ambassadors in Burberry’s 170th Trench Tribute — A Fresh Look at an Old Icon
Burberry’s 170th anniversary campaign places jonathan bailey among a carefully curated party of 23 brand ambassadors, reframing the trench coat as simultaneously archival and contemporary. The campaign, titled ‘The Trench, Portraits of an Icon’, pairs staged portraiture with runway reinvention to signal that a century-spanning garment continues to function as both practical outerwear and a platform for personal expression.
Jonathan Bailey at the Heart of a 23-Name Campaign
The inclusion of jonathan bailey in a line-up that spans film, music, sport and fashion emphasizes the trench coat’s role as a cross-disciplinary symbol. Photographed by Tim Walker and styled by Katy England, the portraits assemble past and present ambassadors to underscore Burberry’s intent: to honor craftsmanship while spotlighting the individuals who activate the garment’s meaning in public life. Daniel Lee, Chief Creative Officer, Burberry, frames the work as celebratory and communal—”Think of it as a tribute to Burberry – a symbol of British style and craftsmanship – and a thank you to the skilled individuals behind every coat. ” The campaign’s roster and creative team are presented as an intentional coalition that ties craft to contemporary visibility.
The Trench’s Technical Evolution and Enduring Appeal
The trench’s longevity is presented as the outcome of inventiveness as much as aesthetic allure. Burberry’s founder invented gabardine in 1879, a breathable, waterproof fabric that replaced earlier rubberized outerwear; that textile innovation underpins the trench’s practical reputation. The minimalist 1912 Tielocken is cited as the trench’s early modern form, and modifications during the First World War—most notably the addition of a detachable warmer branded the Burberry Trench Warm—helped cement the coat’s utility and name. The trench’s utility gained further validation when polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton trusted gabardine across three Antarctic expeditions; Shackleton wrote in his 1909 chronicle, The Heart of the Antarctic, that “Anyone feeling the texture and lightness of the Burberry material would hardly believe that it answers so well in keeping out the cold and wind. “
Across more than a century the trench has been repeatedly reimagined—arriving in leather, shearling, jacquard and metallic finishes, and presented with embroidered, embellished, hand-painted and whipstitched treatments. Recent catwalk interpretations—cited as AW26—extend that lineage, with lapels transformed into waterfall ruffles, demonstrating how structural adjustments preserve the trench’s functional DNA while asserting new visual identities.
What This Campaign Means for Burberry’s Global Reach
The campaign’s assembled names and the catalogue of reinventions map a strategic argument: the trench coat is both a national export and a global cultural signifier. By bringing together an international cast across creative fields, Burberry highlights how the garment circulates beyond its origins in British military and exploration history into red carpets, film frames and everyday wardrobes. The campaign imagery, the creative credits and the explicit celebration of the individuals who wear the coat aim to translate archival authority into present-day relevance.
That relevance is visible in the trench’s celebrity devotees and public appearances across generations. The brand’s framing—part heritage commemoration, part contemporary staging—seeks to ensure the trench remains legible in new contexts while retaining the technical characteristics that made it indispensable in the first place.
For jonathan bailey and the other ambassadors, the portraits are not mere product placement but a restatement of how clothes function as cultural text: the trench is presented as a wearable ledger of engineering, performance and personal narrative. The editorial choice to combine historic touchstones with runway innovation signals a deliberate attempt to keep the coat both teachable and desirable.
As Burberry marks 170 years and assembles a 23-person tableau to illustrate the trench’s story, the question shifts from whether the trench is iconic to how an icon can continue to generate meaning. With carefully staged portraits, historic citations and runway reinventions all working in concert, the campaign invites a forward-looking question: will the trench’s next reinvention preserve its technical core while answering new climates of style and wearability for a global audience led by figures like jonathan bailey?
