Burberry: A British Perfume Story, Bottling a Garden after the Storm

“My Burberry is a true embodiment of the brand. In its scent, in its design, and in its attitude.”

— Christopher Bailey, Chief Creative Officer

Essential Information
The Founder and the Origins of the Brand
The Brand’s Commitments
The Fragrance Collection
As an Aside…

Essential Information

Founded: 1856 (as a fashion house) / full-scale launch of the perfume business: 1981
Founder: Thomas Burberry
Official website: burberry.com

The Founder and the Origins of the Brand

The Revolution Started by a 21-Year-Old Draper

Thomas Burberry was born on August 27, 1835, in the small village of Brockham Green in Surrey, England. There is no record of his father having been a farmer; after finishing at the local school, Thomas chose to become an apprentice to a village draper. At the time, an apprenticeship with a draper was a traditional route to learning the fundamentals of craft and commerce, and it was there that Thomas honed his eye for materials and his business instincts.

In 1856, at just 21, he opened his own shop in Basingstoke, Hampshire. Basingstoke was then only a small town of around 4,500 people, but that did not concern Thomas. From the beginning, his interest lay in the materials themselves.

Gabardine: The Day a Fabric Changed History

Thomas’s greatest passion was “making clothes that could withstand Britain’s bad weather.” At the time, waterproof fabrics were mainly rubberized cloth or heavy woolens, which were poorly ventilated and restricted movement. His desire to improve this situation drove him into years of collaborative research with textile manufacturers.

In 1879, he finally achieved his goal with the invention of gabardine. Gabardine is a densely woven fabric made from Egyptian cotton treated for waterproofing before the fibers are twisted together. Light and breathable, yet impervious to rain and wind, it was a material unlike anything that had existed before. Patented in 1888, gabardine became Burberry’s most fundamental legacy.

Explorers Prove the Fabric’s Capabilities

The true worth of the new material was demonstrated in harsh conditions in the field. In 1893, the Norwegian polar explorer and later Nobel Peace Prize laureate Fridtjof Nansen became the first recorded polar explorer to use Burberry gabardine on an Arctic expedition.

Burberry’s relationship with exploration grew deeper. The British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton wore Burberry gabardine on three expeditions, including the Endurance expedition, which aimed to cross Antarctica. During the 1914 expedition, the Endurance became trapped in ice, but Shackleton, wearing a Burberry anorak, trousers, and hood, kept all 27 members of his crew alive for at least a year. The fact that gabardine protected lives took this story beyond the realm of fashion.

Thomas also enhanced the company’s publicity by having prominent figures such as Lord Kitchener and Lord Baden-Powell wear its clothing, and the business expanded rapidly. By the 1871 census, he already had at least 70 employees, and in 1878 he built a large manufacturing facility employing at least 200 people.

The First World War and the Birth of the Trench Coat

The greatest turning point that engraved the Burberry name on the world was war. To meet military requirements, Burberry developed an army coat using the gabardine Thomas had invented. Equipped with epaulettes (shoulder straps), a storm flap, and D-rings, this practical garment suited to fighting in the trenches became known as the “trench coat.” After the war, soldiers continued to wear it on returning home, helping it spread into civilian fashion.

Thomas Burberry retired to a location near Weymouth, Dorset, in 1917, and died on April 4, 1926, in Hook, near Basingstoke. Throughout his life he was a teetotaler, opposed tobacco, and was known as a devout Baptist.

The Brand’s Succession and Trials

After Thomas’s death, Burberry continued to grow while undergoing a complex series of changes. Great Universal Stores (GUS) acquired Burberry in 1955, bringing the era of family ownership to an end. In the latter half of the twentieth century, the brand’s distinctive check became enormously popular among British football fans, with the ironic consequence that it became associated with “hooligan culture.”

Against this backdrop, Yorkshire-born designer Christopher Bailey joined Burberry as Design Director in 2001. Born in 1971, Bailey grew up in a working-class family, with a carpenter father and a mother who was a window dresser for Marks & Spencer. After studying fashion at the University of Westminster, he earned a master’s degree at the Royal College of Art (RCA). He came to Burberry following stints at Donna Karan and Gucci.

“I live with my eyes open. I don’t go out of my way to travel abroad or seek out other cultures for inspiration.”

— Christopher Bailey (Interview Magazine, 2010)

Bailey became Creative Director in 2004 and Chief Creative Officer in 2009, reshaping Burberry as a modern luxury brand at the intersection of digital technology and fashion. He remained the face of the brand for 17 years, until Riccardo Tisci succeeded him in March 2018.

The Brand’s Commitments

The Philosophy of “Putting a Trench Coat in a Bottle”

At the heart of Burberry’s perfumery is a consistent commitment to translating its most important heritage, the trench coat and gabardine, into the world of smell. This applies not only metaphorically, but quite literally to bottle design.

For My Burberry, launched in 2014, the bottle’s color was set to the trench coat’s honey beige, the horn-finish cap took its inspiration from the coat’s horn buttons, and a hand-tied ribbon of Yorkshire-made gabardine, the same fabric used in the actual trench coats, was placed around the neck. A bottle that integrates the DNA of fashion and fragrance so thoroughly is rare even in the perfume industry.

Weather, Gardens, and London Landscapes

Burberry fragrances often take Britain’s distinctive “weather” as their olfactory starting point. Visions such as “a London garden after the rain” and “the energy and diversity of London” serve as actual briefs for the perfumers, determining the direction of the scents.

An Ongoing Homage to Gabardine

The gabardine invented by Thomas Burberry in 1879 appears repeatedly not just in bottle designs but also in packaging and the storytelling around the perfumes. At least 140 years after the fabric’s invention, the founder’s legacy lives on through elements such as “hand-tied gabardine ribbons” and “gabardine-inspired labels.”

Sustainability Initiatives

Launched in 2023, Burberry Goddess became the brand’s first refillable fragrance. Its design, featuring a varnished-glass bottle with a gold, gabardine-inspired label, attracted attention for combining a traditional aesthetic with contemporary environmental considerations.

The Fragrance Collection

Since its first creation in 1981, Burberry’s fragrance business has produced numerous perfumes, and its history can broadly be understood in four phases.

Phase 1: The Birth of the Fragrance Business (1981–1992)

In 1981, Burberry launched its first perfume, Burberrys for Men. With a woody-oriental scent profile, it appeared in a bottle bearing the brand’s equestrian emblem, the Equestrian Knight Design, and is still known to enthusiasts as a men’s fragrance classic imbued with British refinement.

In 1991, alongside Burberrys for Men (a revised oriental-vanilla version), the Society duo for women and men was released under the slogan “You Were Born to It.”

Phase 2: Expanding the Collection and the Inter Parfums Era (1993–2012)

In 1993, the French fragrance licensing company Inter Parfums acquired the license and went on to manage Burberry’s fragrance business for around 20 years, until 2012.

A representative creation from this period is Burberry Weekend (1997). The women’s version was composed by perfumer Nathalie Lorson, while Michel Almairac created the men’s. With a casual, cheerful tone, Weekend won broad acceptance as a series that expressed Burberry’s vision of “the carefree lightness of a British holiday” in scent.

Introduced in 2003, Burberry Brit became the biggest hit of this phase. Created by perfumer Nathalie Gracia-Cetto, it layered white peony, vanilla, and amber over top notes of lime, pear, and almond. Incorporating Burberry’s tartan check into the bottle also strengthened its integration with the brand’s visual identity. Brit won a FiFi Award, and numerous variations followed, including Brit Red (2004), Brit Gold (2005), and Brit Sheer (2007).

In 2006, the Burberry London duo launched in distinctive bottles covered on the outside with Burberry tartan fabric.

Burberry Body in 2011 was described as the brand’s most successful fragrance launch to date, with a major rollout accompanied by a global digital and outdoor advertising campaign.

Phase 3: Bringing the Business In-House and the Masterpieces of the Christopher Bailey Era (2013–2017)

In 2012, Burberry gave notice that it would end its license with Inter Parfums and decided to buy it back for €181 million. From the following year, 2013, it controlled its fragrance business in-house, fully reclaiming creative leadership.

The first masterpiece born of this decision was My Burberry in 2014. Bailey said that he “wanted people to imagine a woman in a trench coat in a London garden after the rain,” and Francis Kurkdjian composed the perfume. Described as a “contemporary British grand floral,” it opens with sweet pea and bergamot, moves through a heart of geranium, golden quince, and freesia, and rests on a base of patchouli and centifolia rose. It became an emblematic creation establishing a fully fledged luxury presence for Burberry in the perfume world as well.

“Christopher wanted to evoke a woman wearing a trench coat in a London garden after the rain. A classic, structured fragrance, but with a twist of its own.”

— Francis Kurkdjian (W Magazine, 2014)

Bailey himself also said:

“My Burberry is a true embodiment of the brand. In its scent, in its design, and in its attitude.”

In 2016, Mr. Burberry for men was launched as My Burberry’s “companion.” Also created by Kurkdjian, its herbal-woody structure comprises top notes of grapefruit, tarragon, and cardamom, a heart of birch leaf and nutmeg, and a base of cedar, sandalwood, vetiver, and guaiac wood. Bailey called it “our most important men’s fragrance to date,” describing it as “a refined but not overly perfect scent, inspired by London, a city of contrasts and contradictions.”

In April 2017, Burberry signed a long-term licensing agreement with cosmetics and fragrance giant Coty, and the partnership formally began in October that year. The license fee was £130 million, with responsibilities divided so that Burberry led the creative work and Coty handled manufacturing and global distribution.

Phase 4: The Coty Era and the Birth of New Icons (2017–Present)

The first major women’s fragrance under the Coty partnership was Burberry Her in 2018. Kurkdjian again composed the scent, with top notes of red berries including blackcurrant, blueberry, and raspberry, a jasmine and violet heart, and a dry amber and musk base.

“Burberry Her has a distinctive and memorable signature. To achieve that, you need a powerful accord, an olfactory story that conveys your vision. Combining these sun-kissed berries and British spirit with an ambery-musky accord creates a very unique signature. When someone is wearing it, you recognize it immediately. That is what a signature is.”

— Francis Kurkdjian (PR Newswire, 2018)

Cara Delevingne appeared in the campaign and recorded the London song “Maybe It’s Because I’m a Londoner” herself for its soundtrack.

Then, in 2023, Burberry Goddess arrived. Created by Firmenich perfumer Amandine Clerc-Marie, it featured an unprecedented composition combining three different methods of vanilla extraction: vanilla infusion (a bright, woody vanilla), vanilla caviar (extracted using Firgood™ technology and used in a fragrance for the first time, with a rich, sweet, animalic vanilla character), and vanilla absolute (with a mysterious, milky facet).

“The initial goal for Burberry Goddess was to go beyond the familiar use of vanilla and offer a new kind of rich olfactory experience.”

— Amandine Clerc-Marie

Combined with lavender, cacao, and ginger, Goddess was also Burberry’s first refillable fragrance, becoming a creation that expressed where the brand stood at that point.

As an Aside…

An Explorer’s Gabardine Tent: Burberry’s connection with outdoor exploration far predates its perfumes. Records indicate that the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen used a tent made from Burberry gabardine for his camps in Antarctica. The fact that a piece of fabric protected lives in the polar regions makes for a fascinating story at the origins of today’s fragrance business.

The Check’s Complicated Fate: Burberry’s signature check began as a trench-coat lining in the 1920s, but in the latter half of the twentieth century it was adopted by British football-fan culture, leaving the brand to contend with an image problem linked to “hooligans.” From 2006 onward, Bailey and then-CEO Angela Ahrendts bought back at least 20 licenses and continued working to rebuild confidence in the brand. Bringing the fragrance license under control was part of that effort.

Parting Ways with Inter Parfums: The €181 million license buyback in 2012 was an exceptionally large transaction for the fragrance industry. Around half of Inter Parfums’ sales came from its Burberry license, so the end of the agreement dealt the company a major blow. Considering that Burberry’s desire to take control, even at such a cost, led to the creation of the masterpiece My Burberry, that decision can truly be called a turning point.

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