Burberry

Burberry is a British luxury house founded in 1856 in Basingstoke, Hampshire, by Thomas Burberry, a 21-year-old former draper's apprentice [5]. The parent company, Burberry Group plc, trades on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: BRBY) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. While Burberry is best known for fashion and outerwear, it also runs a beauty and fragrance line; since 2017 that part of the business has been operated under an exclusive long-term licence by Coty Inc. [6].

The company began with outdoor clothing rather than cosmetics, and its beauty range is a relatively recent extension of a much older heritage. The brand presents its beauty products as an outgrowth of that history, describing the line as "a unique blend of expertly crafted scents and timeless colour palettes, inspired by Burberry's British heritage."

Thomas Burberry opened his draper's shop in Basingstoke in 1856 at the age of 21. According to the company, he was driven by the conviction that heavy, uncomfortable outerwear restricted outdoor movement, and he set out to let people "move freely outdoors." That goal led to his defining invention: in 1879 he developed gabardine, which the brand describes as "the world's first breathable and weatherproof fabric" [2]. Gabardine became the basis for Burberry's rainwear and, later, the trench coat, a garment originally adapted for military use in the First World War and still hand-finished in Yorkshire.

Several emblems from this early period remain central to the house. The Equestrian Knight logo was adopted after winning a public competition around 1901 and carries the Latin motto Prorsum, meaning "Forwards." The Burberry Check, introduced in the 1920s as a lining for outerwear, later became the brand's global trademark.

Burberry Group plc is publicly listed and headquartered in London. Its beauty and fragrance operations, however, sit outside the company's direct control. During the 1970s to 1990s, Burberry handled fragrance through licensing agreements with outside manufacturers; under CEO Angela Ahrendts and creative director Christopher Bailey, it brought those licences back in-house and launched a cosmetics line in 2010.

That arrangement reversed again in 2017, when Burberry licensed its fragrance, cosmetics and skincare to Coty Inc. for approximately £130 million in a long-term global deal [6]. Coty took over development, manufacture and distribution of the full Burberry Beauty range and folded it into its luxury division [14]. The line therefore shares a corporate home with Coty's other licensed and owned fragrance brands, among them BOSS, Calvin Klein, Davidoff, Gucci-era stablemates such as Lancaster, and mass-market labels including Rimmel and Max Factor.

Burberry positions its beauty range as an extension of its outdoors-rooted heritage, threading the same British identity that runs through the trench coat and gabardine into fragrance and makeup. The company frames the products around emotional narratives tied to specific scents — for example, presenting Burberry Her as "a series of bold, unique scents for the modern woman, inspired by London." Within Coty's structure the line is positioned as luxury, sold globally across multiple retail channels.

Burberry Beauty spans fragrance and makeup, with the fragrance side the more prominent of the two. The house entered perfumery in 1981 with Burberry for Men [5], and over the following decades built a portfolio of pillar scents. Burberry Her, launched in 2018, was created by the perfumer Francis Kurkdjian and was the first product to carry the brand's then-redesigned identity [10]. Other lines include Burberry Hero for men, built around what the brand calls "a trio of cedarwood oils," and Burberry Signatures, a collection the company says is meant to evoke "the simplicity of nature."

The line's most visible recent product is Burberry Goddess Eau de Parfum, launched in 2023 and built around a gourmand vanilla composition by the perfumer Amandine Clerc-Marie, with the fragrance house dsm-firmenich and Coty as manufacturer. The makeup range covers face, lips and eyes, with the brand emphasising long-wear foundations and "richly pigmented" eye products in "heritage Burberry colours."

On the innovation side, Burberry's documented technical contributions belong to its textiles rather than its cosmetics: the original gabardine and a lighter "tropical gabardine" the brand describes as "shower-resistant and breathable."

Burberry Goddess Eau de Parfum won the 2024 Fragrance Foundation Award for Fragrance of the Year in the Women's Prestige category, presented at a gala at Lincoln Center on 5 June 2024 [7]. At the same awards it also took the Consumer Choice prize in the Women's Prestige category [13]. The fragrance drew editorial attention as well: a Who What Wear review described it as "a grown up gourmand" and noted that it had "gone somewhat viral on TikTok," while also observing that "they don't have the best lasting powers" [8].

Burberry is classified as not cruelty-free by PETA, which states that the company tests on animals — directly, through suppliers, or via third parties — and sells in mainland China, where animal testing may be legally required [9]. PETA notes that Coty, which holds the beauty and fragrance licence, is likewise classified as a corporation that engages in animal testing.

Burberry remains active and globally distributed. The parent company is a FTSE 100 constituent, and the beauty line has continued to launch and win recognition under Coty, most recently the 2024 Fragrance Foundation Awards for Burberry Goddess. The fashion house also continues to evolve its identity: in February 2023, chief creative officer Daniel Lee introduced a refreshed brand identity that reinstated the Equestrian Knight logo, in a campaign featuring British figures including Shygirl, Liberty Ross and Skepta.