Article: The Wild Ride of the Burberry Nova Check
The Wild Ride of the Burberry Nova Check
Okay, let's talk about the check. You know the one beige, black, red, and just a touch of white — the most famous plaid in fashion history, full stop. But before it was sitting pretty on a $600 runway coat, this pattern went from Antarctic survival gear, to national tabloid scandal, to certified Y2K icon.
Buckle up, because Burberry's story has more plot twists than a Sunday night drama.
C H A P T E R O N E
Not Vibes, Actual Function
Burberry didn't start out trying to be cool, it started out trying to keep people dry. Back in 1856, a 21-year-old draper's apprentice called Thomas Burberry opened his own little outfitting shop in Basingstoke and, a few decades later, invented gabardine a genuinely tough, weatherproof cotton that could survive rain, wind and thorns. This is not a brand origin story built on vanity. This is a fabric so good it ended up on polar expeditions and WWI officer coats, yep, that's literally where the term "trench coat" comes from. No check, no logos, just pure function.
WW1 Burberry Officers Trench Coat
We're honouring that OG era with our Y2K Burberry London Beige Check-Lined Detachable Hood Coat, built for weather, same function-first logic that got the brand here in the first place. SHOP NOW
Our 1990's Thomas Burberry Tan Cotton Twill Trousers tell a slightly different side of the story, though "Thomas Burberry" was actually a more affordable spin-off line, launched decades later in 1988 for a younger customer. But even then, the house still put its founder's own name and birth year right on the label. Some things never stop being good marketing. SHOP NOW
C H A P T E R T W O
When The Check Got a Little Too Famous
By the 80s the Nova check was pure status symbol energy — upper crust, aspirational, exactly what a marketing exec dreams about at night. But fame is a double-edged sword, and by the late 90s/early 2000s the check had gone from exclusive to everywhere — and in early-2000s Britain, "everywhere" meant getting written off by the tabloids as cheap, try-hard branding, hard enough that actual UK pubs and clubs banned people for wearing it. Wild.
Burberry's answer? Christopher Bailey stepped in as creative director in 2001 and did a full identity overhaul — slashing check usage from about 20% of product down to just 5% within a few years, pulling the checked caps entirely, and going to war on counterfeiters. It was a proper "who even are we" moment for a 150-year-old house.
This exact era lives on in our Burberry Brit Black V-neck Polo and Burberry Brit Yellow Polo. The Brit line was the brand's most everyday, most-worn product at the time, which is exactly why it ended up smack in the middle of the whole saga.
C H A P T E R T H R E E
Full Circle, Baby
Here's the plot twist — Bailey didn't run from the check forever. In 2017 he brought it back himself, teaming up with streetwear designer Gosha Rubchinskiy for a runway moment that treated the check's messy past as heritage, not baggage. His words to Vogue? "I have never been snotty about it... it's a very important part of our history." Respect. From tabloid villain to street style hero to bonafide vintage grail — that's character development.
That exact redemption arc is sitting right here in our Y2K Burberry Blue Nova Check Shirt and Y2K Burberry Classic Plaid Button Down. The same pattern that once got people turned away from bars, now one of the most hunted prints in vintage shopping. Iconic comeback behaviour.
150+ years, three completely different eras
One seriously legendary check