SINGAPORE—Dyed-in-the-wool fashion folk have no difficulty identifying that unmistakable Burberry check from across a room.

The distinct design—intersecting black-and-white lines on a camel background—can be found on the British luxury brand’s apparel, bags and small leather goods and accessories.

Even its eyewear stems and perfume bottles sport a modified design. Don’t forget that it also appears as the lining of its iconic water-repellent trench coats.

The Burberry check is tied to the brand’s 160-year heritage, which regular clientele looks for and expects to see every season.

 

To give them a fuller, more informed experience, the brand has mounted “Tale of a Trench Coat,” a traveling exhibit that kicked off in Seoul before heading to Tokyo and making a two-week stop in the newly opened Burberry store at Ion Orchard. The exhibit is on view until April 23.

The exhibit, which starts with a whimsical, travel-theme display in the mall’s atrium, shows several mannequins in trench coats and carrying rucksacks from the current “tropical gabardine” collection.

The pieces, which sport a comely sheen, are still water-repellent but are lighter and more suited to our tropical weather.

One mannequin, harnessed to a parachute made of the same gabardine of the brand’s Heritage Trenches, hints at the brand’s history of outfitting aviators and explorers.

In the store are vignettes, including a work area consisting of a work desk and a display of scissors and other instruments used to make the trench.

Another table shows how integral personalization is to the brand. Burberry uses initials made by the same manufacturer that supplies the British Royal Guard. If a customer wants to have a bag or trench coat personalized, she has to wait several days because the item has to be sent to Scotland where all the stitching and finishing is done.

The highlight of “Tale of the Trench” is the tableau featuring 14 trenches designed by Burberry chief creative and CEO Christopher Bailey from 2005 to the present. There is a trench with rounded shoulders inspired by sculptor Henry Moore, a metallic magenta men’s trench from the “Come Rain or Shine” Spring-Summer 2013 collection, and a regimental tape-embroidered beauty with tasseled epaulets from the “Luxury Warrior” Spring-Summer 2008 collection.

Burberry was one of the early adopters of online social media, coming out with “Art of the Trench” 10 years ago that consisted of pictures of trench-clad clients from around the world.

Burberry is exclusively  distributed by Stores Specialists Inc., with stores at Greenbelt 4, Rustan’s Makati and Rustan’s Shangri-La Plaza.