Burberry Group plc is a British luxury
fashion houseFashion House is an American telenovela that aired at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT Monday through Saturday on MyNetworkTV stations. The series premiered on September 5, 2006 and concluded on December 5, 2006...
, manufacturing clothing, fragrance, and
fashion accessoriesFashion accessories are decorative items that supplement and complement clothes, such as jewelery, gloves, handbags, hats, belts, scarves, wigs, watches, sunglasses, pins, stockings, bow ties, hand fans, leg warmers, leggings, neckties, suspenders, and tights....
. Its distinctive
tartanTartan is a pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in many other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland. Scottish kilts almost always have tartan patterns...
pattern has become one of its most widely copied
trademarkA trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
s. Burberry is most famous for its iconic
trench coatA trench coat or trenchcoat is a raincoat made of waterproof heavy-duty cotton drill or poplin, wool gabardine, or leather. It generally has a removable insulated lining; and it is usually knee-length.-History:...
, which was invented by founder
Thomas BurberryThomas Burberry was the founder of Burberry, one of the United Kingdom's largest branded clothing businesses.-Career:...
. The company has branded stores and franchises around the world, and also sells through concessions in third-party stores.
HM Queen Elizabeth IIElizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
and
HRH The Prince of WalesPrince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
have granted the company
Royal WarrantRoyal warrants of appointment have been issued for centuries to those who supply goods or services to a royal court or certain royal personages. The warrant enables the supplier to advertise the fact that they supply to the royal family, so lending prestige to the supplier...
s. The Chief Creative Officer is
Christopher BaileyChristopher Bailey is Chief Creative Officer of Burberry, and is responsible for the company’s overall image including all advertising, corporate art direction, store design and visuals as well as the design of all Burberry collections and product lines.Bailey, who was 38 in 2009, was born in...
. The company is listed on the
London Stock ExchangeThe London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
and is a constituent of the
FTSE 100 IndexThe FTSE 100 Index, also called FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the footsie , is a share index of the 100 most highly capitalised UK companies listed on the London Stock Exchange....
.
According to Business Weekly, Burberry is the 98th most valuable brand in the world.
History
Early years, 19th century
Burberry was founded in 1856 when 21-year-old
Thomas BurberryThomas Burberry was the founder of Burberry, one of the United Kingdom's largest branded clothing businesses.-Career:...
, a former draper's apprentice, opened his own store in
BasingstokeBasingstoke is a town in northeast Hampshire, in south central England. It lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon. It is southwest of London, northeast of Southampton, southwest of Reading and northeast of the county town, Winchester. In 2008 it had an estimated population of...
, Hampshire, England. By 1870, the business had established itself by focusing on the development of outdoors attire. In 1880, Burberry introduced in his brand the
gabardineGabardine is a tough, tightly woven fabric used to make suits, overcoats, trousers, uniforms, windbreakers, and other garments. The fibre used to make the fabric is traditionally worsted wool, but may also be cotton, texturized polyester, or a blend. Gabardine is woven as a warp-faced steep or...
, a hardwearing, water-resistant yet breathable fabric, in which the yarn is waterproofed before weaving.
Burberry was the original name, but then the company soon switched to using the name Burberrys, after many customers from around the world began calling it Burberrys of London. This name is still visible on many older Burberry products.
In 1891, Burberry opened a shop in
the HaymarketHaymarket is a street in the St. James's district of the City of Westminster, London. It runs from Piccadilly Circus at the north to Pall Mall at the south...
, London, which still exists and until recently was the site of Burberry’s corporate headquarters. Now the headquarters are at Horseferry House just behind Houses of Parliament, Westminster (London).
20th century
In 1901, the Burberry Equestrian Knight Logo was developed containing the Latin word "Prorsum", meaning forwards, and registered as a trademark. In 1911 they became the outfitters for
Roald AmundsenRoald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912 and he was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. He is also known as the first to traverse the Northwest Passage....
, the first man to reach the
South PoleThe South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole...
, and
Ernest ShackletonSir Ernest Henry Shackleton, CVO, OBE was a notable explorer from County Kildare, Ireland, who was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration...
, who led a 1914 expedition to cross
Antarctica. A Burberry gabardine jacket was worn by
George MalloryGeorge Herbert Leigh Mallory was an English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920s....
on his ill-fated attempt on
Mount EverestMount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...
in 1924.
In 1914 Burberry was commissioned by the
War OfficeThe War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
to adapt its officer's coat to suit the conditions of contemporary warfare, resulting in the "
trench coatA trench coat or trenchcoat is a raincoat made of waterproof heavy-duty cotton drill or poplin, wool gabardine, or leather. It generally has a removable insulated lining; and it is usually knee-length.-History:...
". After the war, the trench coat became popular with civilians. The iconic Burberry check was created in the 1920s and used as a lining in its trench coats.
Burberry also specially designed aviation garments. A. E. Clouston and Mrs Betsy Kirby Green made the fastest flying time to Cape Town from London in 1937 and were sponsored by Burberry.
Recent history
Burberry was an independent company until 1955, when it was taken over by
Great Universal StoresGUS plc was a FTSE 100 retailing group based in the United Kingdom. GUS is an abbreviation of Great Universal Stores, the company's former name before 2001...
(GUS). Burberry Group plc was initially floated on the London Stock Exchange in July 2002. GUS divested its remaining interest in Burberry in December 2005.
In 2006
Rose Marie BravoRose Marie Bravo is an American businesswoman. During her career, she has occupied leadership positions in several major fashion businesses and is now vice chairman at Burberry, of which she was CEO from 1997 to 2005....
, who as Chief Executive had led Burberry to mass market success, retired. She was replaced by current CEO
Angela AhrendtsAngela Ahrendts is an American businessperson and CEO of Burberry, the iconic British luxury brand. Headquartered in London the brand has built a global reputation for pioneering design and innovation...
.
Burberry first began selling online in the US, followed by the UK in October 2006, and the rest of the EU in 2007.
UK image and revitalisation
During the 1970s, the brand became popular with the British
casualThe casual subculture is a subsection of association football culture that is typified by football hooliganism and the wearing of expensive European designer clothing. The subculture originated in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s when many hooligans started wearing designer labels and...
cult, leading to its being associated with members of football firms by the 1990s and
chavA chav is a term that is used in the United Kingdom to describe a stereotype of teenagers and young adults from an underclass background.-Etymology:...
s the following decade. Such a shift in a brand's clientele exemplifies
prole driftProle drift, short for proletarian drift, is a trend in whichproducts, styles or other aspects of culture previously considered to be upscale or upper class become popular among working class people...
.
Burberry has attempted to rebrand itself with advertisements in
GQ,
EsquireEsquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
,
VogueThe British edition of Vogue is a fashion magazine that has been published since 1916.When British Vogue was launched, it was the first overseas edition of an existing fashion magazine. Under the magazine's first editor, Elspeth Champcommunal, the magazine was essentially the same as the American...
,
TatlerTatler has been the name of several British journals and magazines, each of which has viewed itself as the successor of the original literary and society journal founded by Richard Steele in 1709. The current incarnation, founded in 1901, is a glossy magazine published by Condé Nast Publications...
and
Harper's BazaarHarper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
, and is well-known for using British celebrities in its advertising, including models
Kate MossKate Moss is an English model. Moss is known for her waifish figure and popularising the heroin chic look in the 1990s. She is also known for her controversial private life, high profile relationships, party lifestyle, and drug use. Moss changed the look of modelling and started a global debate on...
,
Agyness DeynAgyness Deyn is an English fashion model, actress and singer.-Early life:Deyn is from Failsworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester...
,
Jourdan DunnJourdan Dunn is a British fashion model. She was discovered in Hammersmith Primark in 2006 and signed to Storm Management in London shortly thereafter. In 2008, she was the first black model to walk a Prada runway in over a decade...
and
Lily Donaldson-Career:Donaldson was born in London, and educated at the Camden School for Girls, living in Kentish Town with her parents.Since being scouted by Select Model Management in 2003 at the age of 16 while shopping in Camden, Donaldson has landed campaigns for fashion houses such as Dior, Jil Sander,...
, singer
George CraigGeorge Craig is a model and the frontman of the indie North Yorkshire band One Night Only.Craig has modeled for Burberry, after Christopher Bailey discovered his band and liked their song Just For Tonight. As the vocalist of his band, he also plays the guitar as he insisted on doing so much like...
, actress
Emma WatsonEmma Charlotte Duerre Watson is an English actress and model.Watson rose to prominence playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series. Watson was cast as Hermione at the age of nine, having previously acted only in school plays. From 2001 to 2011, she starred in all eight Harry Potter...
, who was named the face of Burberry's 2009 Fall/Winter campaign and the cover model for the 2010 Spring/Summer campaign, and
Rosie Huntington-WhiteleyRosie Alice Huntington-Whiteley is an English model and actress, best known for her work for lingerie retailer Victoria's Secret and Burberry, and also for her role as Carly Spencer in the 2011 film Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the third installment in the Transformers film series.-Early life...
, who was unveiled as the face of Burberry's newest fragrance, Burberry Body, in July 2011.
Brands
Burberry operates under 4 brands
- Burberry Prorsum
- Burberry London
- Burberry Brit
- Burberry Sport
- Burberry Black Label, men (in Japan & Hong Kong, 2011 only)
- Burberry Blue Label, ladies (in Japan & Hong Kong, 2011 only)
Perfumes
- Burberry Brit
- Burberry Body
- Burberry Summer Eau De Toilette Spray
- Burberry Brit Sheer Eau De Toilette
- Burberry London
- Burberry London Holiday Edition
- Burberry The Beat
- Burberry Sport
- Burberry Sport Ice
- Burberry (Classic)
- Burberry Touch
- Burberry Weekend
Checks
- Haymarket: Classic check with Burberry Equestrian Knight
- House: Classic check without Burberry Equestrian Knight
- Nova: The newer and bigger check pattern. Nova check has a cream/tan background with vertical and horizontal black and pink/red stripes
- Supernova: Bigger than Nova check. On a small leather good with Supernova check, usually have only a diagonal stripe but not a whole check
- Exploded: Exploded check usually in metallic colours like silver
External links