Burberry Reinvents Its Iconic Trench With Fitzrovia & Ellingham For Fall/Winter 2025

Meet the new icons.

Published: September 10, 2025

The Burberry Trench Reimagined: Fitzrovia & Ellingham Take Center Stage — The Fitzrovia in Burberry's "A Grand Escape" Fall/Winter 2025 campaign.

The trench is never just a coat. It is history worn on the body: First as military uniform, later as urban armour, and now as shorthand for a certain kind of cool. Few garments carry such layered meaning, and few brands understand its elasticity quite like Burberry. Every so often, the house revisits its archives not simply to repeat the icon, but to test its boundaries. This season, that question of “what else can the trench be?” arrives in two answers.

The Fitzrovia is the first, taking its name from a London neighbourhood long associated with artists and writers. True to that spirit, it distils creativity into cut and line, reworking the trench’s structure into something sharper, fuller, more theatrical. A fit-and-flare silhouette cinches at the waist before sweeping outwards, with wide sleeves and a vented back that moves almost like fabric on a stage.

When Naomi Campbell wore it on the fall/winter 2025 runway, trimmed in hand-stitched chiffon fringes, it stopped being a coat and became a spectacle. Now, in gabardine and released in both core and seasonal shades, it slips back into everyday life—though without losing its drama. Worn loose over denim, for instance, it brings casual ease; belted tight over a dress, it transforms into glamour armour. That is the trench at its best: Rooted in function, yet ready to evolve with you.

The other answer is the Ellingham, which, by contrast, traces its roots back further. If the Fitzrovia is tied to the spirit of London’s creative scene, then the Ellingham looks to the 1880s, when the car coat predated the trench and served a practical function. Burberry’s new iteration retains the historic ease of movement while sharpening it for modern life. The cut is slim in the torso, the sleeves rounded and voluminous, and the skirt flares into what the brand dubs a “Princess” silhouette. The result is a coat that wears almost like a dress, romantic in sweep but purposeful in structure. There is elegance built into the details, such as in the raglan sleeves that slope gently from the shoulder, and the belted waist that flatters without fuss. The gabardine still carries the tactile toughness Thomas Burberry designed it for more than a century ago.

And perhaps that is the magic of the trench: Practical but ultimately theatrical. You slip into the Ellingham and suddenly the everyday act of stepping out becomes something closer to performance, whether you’re running late for the train or pacing across the lobby of a hotel in the rain.

Both the Fitzrovia and Ellingham trenches take centre stage in Burberry’s fall campaign, Back to the City, underscoring their place as enduring signatures of Daniel Lee’s vision. London becomes both stage and character, with the film unfurling across an open-top bus tour past landmarks like Trafalgar Square and the London Eye—reminding us that the city is as iconic as the coats stitched in its name. Lee leans into irreverent Britishness, casting musician Jimothy Lacoste, model Nora Attal, and TikTok creators Bus Aunty and Bemi Orojuogun, whose internet-famous double-decker selfies gave her instant folk-hero status. The trenches reappear in A Grand Escape, Burberry's winter campaign, signalling that these silhouettes aren’t fleeting fashion statements but anchor pieces set to define the brand’s present and future.

And amidst the spectacle, the Fitzrovia and Ellingham hold their ground as connective tissue between London’s history and its present, between nostalgia and modernity, between the everyday and the cinematic.

And that is exactly the paradox of the trench: It is the same but never quite the same. Burberry knows this better than anyone, which is why new shapes like Fitzrovia and Ellingham don’t replace the Kensington or Chelsea, but sit alongside them as part of an ongoing conversation. The appeal of the trench lies not in permanence but in possibility.