Celebrity Names: Kid Cudi, Little Simz, Teyana Taylor (+ 20 others including Kate Moss, Kendall Jenner, Jonathan Bailey, Daisy Edgar-Jones)
Brand Name: Burberry
Deal Type: Anniversary Campaign Partnership
Announced: March 2, 2026
Impact: Positions Burberry’s trench as a cross‑generational cultural icon, boosts global visibility around a hero product, and deepens each artist’s footprint in luxury fashion
- Burberry launched “The Trench, Portraits of an Icon” on March 2, 2026, a 170th-anniversary global campaign featuring 23 cultural icons, photographed entirely in black and white by Tim Walker.
- Kid Cudi, Little Simz, and Teyana Taylor lead the music contingent in the campaign, joining Kate Moss, Kendall Jenner, Jonathan Bailey, and Daisy Edgar-Jones in a cross-generational “culture council.”
- A documentary film set to Blur’s “Sing” accompanies the portraits, alongside an expanded Heritage Collection that introduces the new Mayfair trench jacket.
- Burberry is bringing the campaign to life with pop-ups and window takeovers in London, New York, Tokyo, and Seoul.
Burberry is turning 170, and it’s marking the milestone the only way a British icon knows how: with a trench coat and a star-studded lineup. The brand launched “The Trench, Portraits of an Icon” on March 2, 2026, photographed by Tim Walker in stark black and white.
The cast spans 23 cultural heavyweights. Kid Cudi, Little Simz, and Teyana Taylor fly the flag for music, joined by Kendall Jenner, Jonathan Bailey, Kate Moss, and Daisy Edgar-Jones, among others. Each portrait is stripped back and cinematic; just character, attitude, and a belted trench.
Each star is riding a career high right now. Kid Cudi kicks off his Rebel Ragers Tour on April 28, a 33-city run with M.I.A. and Big Boi. Little Simz lands four MOBO Award nominations for her album Lotus and headlines Cross the Tracks 2026. And Teyana Taylor, Golden Globe winner for One Battle After Another and a first-time Oscar nominee, is entertainment’s hottest name right now.
A documentary film set to Blur’s “Sing” accompanies the portraits. Burberry is also rolling out pop-ups at Regent Street (London), 57th Street (New York), Isetan Shinjuku (Tokyo), and Lotte Main (Seoul), alongside an expanded Heritage Collection introducing a new Mayfair trench jacket, all made at Burberry’s Castleford facility in England.
It’s the latest signal that luxury fashion is chasing cultural credibility through star power. Ice Spice and John Turturro recently fronted a headline-grabbing H&M campaign, and Labrinth, Winona Ryder, and Hudson Williams were tapped as Balenciaga ambassadors; underlining how fashion houses are increasingly building culture councils, not just campaigns.
Burberry’s casting choices are anything but random. Choosing Kid Cudi, Little Simz, and Teyana Taylor, all operating at the top of their game in 2026, is a deliberate bid to tie a 170-year-old brand to present-day cultural energy, not just nostalgia.
Tim Walker’s black-and-white palette is the masterstroke here: it erases era markers, making the campaign feel like it belongs to every decade at once. The addition of physical pop-ups across four global cities signals that Burberry wants this to be an experience, not just a scroll.
The bigger picture? Luxury fashion is no longer just dressing celebrities, it’s building cultural narratives through them. Burberry’s “culture council” model, bringing together film, music, sport, and fashion, is quickly becoming a blueprint other houses will follow.
Does seeing artists like Kid Cudi, Little Simz and Teyana Taylor in Burberry make you more likely to view the trench as a “must‑have” piece? As Burberry celebrates heritage, does the campaign successfully balance timelessness with genuine cultural relevance?
