Burberry Trench Coat Dupe: You Can Skip Half the Lookalikes, and the Tag Says Which Half

Marks & Spencer put out a press release on March 5 with the headline “Others Have Tried But M&S Has Delivered,” for a £95 coat it calls, in capitals, THE TRENCH. Her.ie called it the perfect Burberry dupe four days later. Hello’s Leanne Bayley tried both and liked the check lining. Now it’s the third week of August, the fall trench pages are live, and on September 21 the V&A opens a free display of the actual thing, archive coats included. So the dupe lists are back, and I did what I did with wool coats last week: I ignored the photos and read the labels.

We haven’t worn any of these. This is a desk read of nine product pages, this week, plus the original’s.

What is a Burberry trench coat actually made of?

Burberry’s Long Kensington Heritage trench is 100% cotton gabardine on the shell and 100% cotton in the check lining, at $2,850, per the brand’s own product page. Outer, 100% cotton. Lining, 100% cotton, in the check. Sleeve lining, viscose. “Made in England from shower-resistant cotton gabardine, woven at the Burberry Mill.” Made in Yorkshire. Comes with a garment bag. Over on the corporate site the brand adds the numbers it likes: Heritage trenches sewn in Castleford for over 50 years, the gabardine woven at its own mill in Keighley, the collar made of eight parts and up to 270 stitches, a year to learn. That last part is the bit no dupe is even trying to copy. Fine. The fabric line is the bit they all claim to.

Woman in a long khaki double-breasted trench with epaulettes and buckled cuffs crossing a city street, brown wide corduroys, floral bag — A classic khaki trench, all the hardware present, on a city crosswalk. Via @audreekatelopez. View on Instagram

Here is what the cheaper labels say. Price is the one on the page when I looked; three brands (Sézane, Zara, Aritzia) blocked my reads and aren’t here.

Coat	Price	Shell	Lining	Made in	Water claim
Burberry Long Kensington Heritage	$2,850	100% cotton gabardine	100% cotton check	Yorkshire, England	“shower-resistant”
M&S The Trench (Pure Cotton Longline)	£95	100% cotton twill	cotton body, poly sleeves	not stated	Stormwear, “shower resistance”
J.Crew Icon Trench	$348, on sale $229.50	100% cotton	100% polyester	imported	“water-repellent”
Everlane Modern Trench	$258	100% organic cotton	100% recycled polyester	Vietnam, factory named	“water-resistant”
Banana Republic Classic Cotton Trench	$400	100% cotton, “sturdy cotton twill”	100% viscose	imported	“water-resistant”
Mango Classic 100% Cotton Trench	$249.99, on sale $149.99	100% cotton	not shown to me	not stated	none I could find
Quince Comfort Stretch Trench	$100	organic cotton with stretch	lightweight, unspecified	not stated on page	“water-resistant finish”
Uniqlo Trench Coat	not loading for me	100% polyester (69% recycled)	check: 65% poly, 35% cotton	Cambodia	none
Abercrombie Classic Trench	not confirmed	83% polyester, 17% cotton	100% polyester	imported	“wind- and water-resistant”
Reformation Dion Trench	not confirmed	100% polyester, deadstock	not disclosed	China	none

Two things jump out, and neither is the price.

First, the table splits in half at the shell, and the split has nothing to do with the dupe rankings. Six of the nine are all cotton, from £95 to $400. Three are mostly or entirely polyester, and one of those is Uniqlo, which put a check pattern on the lining, 65% polyester itself, under a 100% polyester shell. That’s copying the signature and skipping the sentence. Abercrombie is 83% polyester. Reformation’s is 100% polyester because it’s deadstock, which is a decision, not a corner cut, but it’s not a gabardine trench either. If what you wanted from Burberry was the fabric, and that’s the only thing the dupe premise is about, you can skip that half of every list. It’s written on the tag.

Woman in an oversized camel single-breasted trench and white trousers standing on a Paris crosswalk outside The Frankie Shop — A camel trench outside The Frankie Shop in Paris. Via @chloejade_story. View on Instagram

Is gabardine the same as cotton twill?

Gabardine is a weave, a steep twill with far more warp than weft, invented by Thomas Burberry in 1879, and it isn’t a fiber at all. You can weave it in cotton, wool or polyester, and Burberry’s is cotton from its own mill. On the cheaper pages the shell is called twill, or nothing at all, and Banana Republic actually says “sturdy cotton twill.” So “100% cotton” tells you the fiber matches, and it tells you nothing about whether the weave does, or how heavy the cloth is. Not one of the ten pages, Burberry included, gives a fabric weight. Same silence as the wool coats. Which means the honest gap between M&S at £95 and Banana Republic at $400, both “100% cotton” with a water treatment, is not something either page will explain to you. I’d guess it’s weight and finish. I can’t show you.

Man in glasses and a green zip polo sitting on a stone park wall in an old beige double-breasted trench, green bag beside him, autumn trees behind — An older beige trench, worn open on a park wall in autumn. Via @asempe. View on Instagram

One more thing from Quince’s page, because it’s the kind of thing I read these for. Under the coat there’s a comparison chart pricing Banana Republic’s trench at $270 and Everlane’s at $228. Banana Republic’s own page said $400 the same afternoon, and Everlane’s said $258. Nobody is lying, exactly. Prices move. But the chart on the $100 coat is the least reliable thing on that page, and the fiber line two inches above it is the thing I’d actually trust.

So, the pair of coats in your tabs. If it’s polyester, close the tab, whatever the list said. If it’s cotton, the £95 and the $100 are now sitting at the bottom of the same fiber column as the $400, and none of the three will tell you why they’re different. Or wait until September 21, walk into the Prince Consort Gallery for nothing, and look at the one they’re all copying. Cheapest trench in London.