Burberry, 10 curiosities about its founder Thomas (and about the most British brand there is)

Fashion changes, Burberry stay. And if the current creative director, Riccardo Tisci, contributes today to keep the brand a fixed point in the Olympus of the most desired brands in the world, with legendary style cornerstones at his arch (above all, of course, the trench coat and tartan motif) but also thanks to the company’s ability to know how to ride the times, perhaps not everyone knows that it was a boy of just 21 years to create this fashion empireas resistant as the revolutionary rainproof fabric that has characterized it for more than a century, gabardine.

Thomas Burberrypassed away at the age of 91, the April 4th 1926 and, over the span of seven decades, he wrote many important pages in the history of fashion, taking his label from humble beginnings to today’s deluxe status.

Born in 1835 in England from a peasant family, Thomas, first apprentice to a local fabric seller but entrepreneur in the DNA, he founded his fashion house in Basingstoke (Hampshire) in 1856. The first goal? Create aBritish climate-proof clothing. Far from selling luxury goods, the founder of the house focuses on the outdoors. Success comes when his creations begin to circulate in British military circles and before that among explorers. To give an eternally bright future to the label is the invention of gabardine in 1879light and tightly woven cotton fabric, resistant to wind and water thanks to the weatherproof coating, patented by Thomas in 1888.

Hence the global boom that passes through boutique openings in London and then in Paris and New York, the trench coat, the historic logo with the knight, the check print, signature absolute of the brand and introduced in the 1920s. Today, although it is known at every latitude and longitude, the brand remains particularly associated with Great Britain.

The long history of the company and its role during some of the most troubled periods in the country’s history, such as the world wars, have contributed to making the brand decidedly British. Second The Guardian even the Church of England owns a share of the company while the monarchy has always been a fan of it.

Always attentive to social changes, after the death of the founder, the maison has pursued its golden path, constantly moving between tradition and transformation (just think that in 2009 it was the first to stream the fashion shows). Today it is among the major brands attentive to the digital world and to the interaction with followers on social media, as well as to sustainability.

In the gallery we have collected 10 curiosities and summarized the milestones of the brand with avant-garde DNA despite being created 166 years ago by Thomas Burberry.

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