Hey there, it’s about time I updated this thing and hopefully this is a helpful one for anyone considering buying a Burberry trench. I had been wanting to purchase one for awhile. After all, who can deny the effortless cool of a slightly oversized trench over a low-key outfit and some chunky boots? Definitely not me.
I started out by heading to a Burberry store near me to try some coats on in person and figure out sizing. The sales associate had me try on a few different models and I realized that I preferred a longer fit. The coat I liked best is called the Waterloo and we found that I was a UK size 8 (US size 6). This is pretty normal for me since I usually get a size 6 in coats. The cut of the Waterloo was long and had raglan sleeves which allowed me to easily layer a denim jacket underneath. She also showed me how the coat was water resistant (NOT waterproof) by splashing a little water on the coat and showing me how it beads on the surface. In an alternate universe, I would have told her to wrap it up and been on my way. Unfortunately, my dream coat costs $2490 plus tax in this reality so it had to stay in the store. But I did leave armed with a lot of good information.
Since buying it new was a little out of my range, I decided to shop for a trench secondhand. I ended up finding a few good options on The RealReal and finally settled on one that had the raglan sleeves I wanted and was a good length. It was a little out of my price range but I’ve noticed that items go on sale on TRR the longer they sit. So I played the waiting game for a few weeks until it went under $600. I ended up paying $577 plus tax and shipping. A whole lot different than $2490 let me tell you.
The shipping took about a week and the coat came folded in a dust bag inside of a box. The condition was just as described on the site and it fit well. The only qualms I had about the coat were that I wish it were longer in basically every way (length, sleeves, belt length). But I probably feel that way because I had tried on the Waterloo in store and had something to compare it to.
My next step was initially to get the coat dry cleaned. But then I started spiraling 😵💫. I called the first dry cleaner and they asked me if the buttons on my coat said Burberry. I looked at my coat and they didn’t which sent me into a tailspin thinking my coat was a counterfeit. Of course, I started googling which caused me to spiral even further. Finally, a little common sense started to chime in and I decided to get the coat authenticated. The first site I went to was Legit Grails and they charged $15 to get back to me in 24 hours. The site basically walks you through what pictures to upload and you can do it right on your phone. While I waited, I figured I should also get a third opinion since I had never heard of Legit Grails and found a site called Legit App that had good reviews. You download their app and purchase tokens. You use the tokens to purchase what you need on the site. I bought $10 in tokens so that I could hear back in 6 hours. The app tells you what parts of the item to take pictures of and you can add in additional pictures if necessary. Both services told me the coat was authentic (thank goodness!) and the downward spiral finally came to an end. Legit Grails got back to me within 22 hours and Legit App took under an hour.
Next it was time to get the coat cleaned. I tried going to my neighborhood dry cleaners, but because the buckles on the coats are leather they couldn’t help. Something about their cleaning process doesn’t agree with the leather. I called Burberry to ask if they could clean the coat or recommend someone and they just advised that I could take it to any luxury cleaners. I had also learned that after cleaning the coat it would need to be re-proofed to renew the water resistant coating. I asked Burberry how much that would cost and they said I would need to bring the coat in and they wouldn’t be able to give a price without seeing it. Very annoying.
I found a cleaners fairly close to me and paid about $50 to have it cleaned. It was a little pricey because they had to remove and re-attach all of the leather buckles in order to clean it. There were a couple of tiny spots on the coat when I first got it from TRR. Dry cleaning doesn’t seem to have removed any of them but the coat did look good.
Now that the coat was cleaned, I wanted to get it reproofed so it would be ready for rainy spring weather. I took it into the Burberry store on 57th Street in Manhattan after making an appointment online. They took the coat in the back to make sure it was eligible for re-proofing. I also considered this my third legit check on this coat because it even passed the Burberry people’s assessment. After about 10 minutes, the sales associate came back and said it could be re-proofed. The cost was $200. Definitely not cheap, but I was still ahead of the game cost wise compared to a new trench. (Just a note, I have heard that if you buy a coat directly from Burberry, they’ll reproof it for free. Not sure if there is a time limit, but definitely worth asking.) I also considered getting a new belt for the coat since it’s kind of short, but the associate advised that a new belt wouldn’t match since the coat had faded in color over time. So I forked over my credit card and they sent my coat out for reproofing. This took a little over a month (March 11 – April 14) and the coat was shipped back to my house in a box. It also came in a Burberry branded garment bag which I appreciated.
Since getting the trench back, I’ve really hit the ground running. As expected, it’s a really easy piece to add to your wardrobe. The only downside is that this material wrinkles really easily so you have to be careful. Other than that, I’m glad I own it. I also did a YouTube video on this. If you want to see the coat in motion, feel free to give it a watch. Any questions, just let me know!