The famous British luxury brand Burberry and how to identify the authenticity of its vintage clothes.
As a classic British brand, Burberry is known worldwide for its trench coats. Its unique trench coat has become an essential item for every fashion lover. Today we're going to take a closer look at the history behind Burberry's trench coats and how to identify them.
【2】Thomas Burberry
In 1856, Thomas Burberry, an apprentice tailor, established the Burberry brand at the age of 21 by himself.【3】
【1】Burberry mid-vintage clothing and bag.
In 1880, Thomas Burberry discovered that the linen shirts worn by farmers at the time were wonderfully warm in winter.
After some exploration, he developed a unique twill waterproof fabric that kept the rain off, hard-wearing and tear-resistant. He eventually named the fabric Gabardin.【3】
【4】Tielocken coat.
In 1914 during the First World War, British officers wore Burberry trench coats in the trenches, also known at the time as 'Tielocken', which featured an unbuttoned waistband that protected the body from head to toe.
The trench coat was later used extensively by the British Army in the First and Second World Wars, and it later became the precursor to Burberry's iconic trench coat.【5】
The continuation
During the 1950s and 1960s, the Burberry trench coat gradually became the regular item of clothing worn by many famous film stars in classic films. It was with this that Burberry made its way into the fashion world.
The continuation
In the late 1990s, Burberry sought to expand its popularity and influence by inviting supermodels such as Kate Moss to endorse its products. This effort gave Burberry's trench coat a more fashionable image.
【6】 Audrey Hepburn in a Burberry trench coat at Breakfast at Tiffany's.
【7】Kate Moss wears a trench coat in Burberry's Autumn/Winter 1999 campaign.
How to identify Burberry coat?
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A very effective way of identifying vintage Burberrys trench coat is to look at its labels.
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The 'Knight' logo was first used in 1901 and the red 'Nova Check' was introduced around 1920.
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The distinctive feature of all these marks is that they are very easy to trace so that we as customers can clearly identify them as genuine.
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It is worth noting that in one of the changes to the design of Burberry clothing, the lettering on the label was changed from the original ’Burberrys‘ to ‘Burberry’, whereas in recent years the new models are all in capital letters, like ‘BURBERRY’.
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This change in detail will be very helpful in identifying mid-vintage trench coats.
【8】Different labels.
Modern labels. (Photographed by author)
hand bags?
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In the mid to late 20th century, like other luxury goods companies, BURBERRY ventured into the realm of the handbag.
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Most luxury bags have a small piece of leather sewn onto the inside of the bag, which is engraved with the brand logo or the place of origin. Each brand party creates its own unique font on sewn, which makes the logo like a seal and very difficult to imitate.
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As an example of two sets of pictures to identify LV bags, to the top one, the genuine bag has a very rounded O and a V with a small sharp corner. To the second, the first two letters represent the place of origin, and the next four digits represent the year and the number of weeks.
hand bags?
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Similarly, we can use this method when identifying a BURBERRY handbag. As the picture shows, the steel mark on the genuine Burberry inner leather label is also unique, with the U and Y being crafted with wider spacing, while the R will be extended by an extra section.
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In addition to this, the engraving on the genuine Burberry lining is absolutely centered and the stitching is symmetrical, with straight, clean, and neat lines.
【9】Louis Vuitton clutch bag with the logo and Serial number on the inside.
Burberry clutch bag with the logo on the inside.(Photographed by author)
Bibliography
【1】Images.unsplash.com. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1602082430164-0c1927ddecb2?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=387&q=80> [Accessed 15 December 2021].
【2】Burberryplc.com. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.burberryplc.com/content/burberry/corporate/en/company/history/_jcr_content/par/image.img.jpg/1622220875928.jpg> [Accessed 15 December 2021].
【3】Kingdom, B., 2021. Our History | Burberry United Kingdom. [online] Burberry United Kingdom. Available at: <https://uk.burberry.com/our-history/> [Accessed 15 December 2021].
【4】Burberryplc.com. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.burberryplc.com/content/burberry/corporate/en/company/history/_jcr_content/par/image_1914970639.img.jpg/1622220874844.jpg> [Accessed 15 December 2021].
【5】Nast, C., 2021. How Burberry became Britain’s most important brand. [online] British GQ. Available at: <https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/how-burberry-became-britains-most-important-brand> [Accessed 15 December 2021].、
【6】Cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7GKCr3ZQXe9dsGwhmySAJR-768-80.jpg.webp> [Accessed 15 December 2021].
【7】fashiongonerogue.com. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.fashiongonerogue.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/kate-moss-burberry-trench-coat-1999.jpg> [Accessed 15 December 2021].
【8】Graciousgood.files.wordpress.com. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://graciousgood.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/burberrys-labels-1.png> [Accessed 15 December 2021].
【9】V.douyin.com. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://v.douyin.com/REMg5sS/> [Accessed 17 December 2021].