Gabardine. Punk. The skull scarf. The Bayswater. Britain put all of these into the world.

TheBritish Fashion Council represents the industry that came from all of it. These top seven UK luxury fashion brands are where that industry thrives.

Burberry, Alexander McQueen, Mulberry, Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney, Dunhill, and Wales Bonner. Seven houses. Seven different answers to the same question: what does British craft actually mean?

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The Top 7 British Luxury Fashion Brands

Burberry

Founded 1856 by Thomas Burberry in Basingstoke.

Thomas Burberry opened a draper's shop in Basingstoke in 1856 at 21. He invented gabardine in 1879.Burberry designed the trench coat for British officers in the First World War. It has been in civilian wardrobes ever since.

Daniel Lee became creative director in September 2022. He brought back the Equestrian Knight logo and put the trench back at the centre of everything. Heritage versions are still cut from gabardine woven in Keighley, West Yorkshire.

Signature pieces:

The Heritage Trench. The Burberry Check Scarf. The Kensington bag.

Alexander McQueen

Founded 1992 by Lee Alexander McQueen in London.

Lee McQueen trained on Savile Row at Anderson & Sheppard and Gieves & Hawkes before studying at Central Saint Martins.Alexander McQueen launched in 1992. The skull scarf came in 2003 and has been in continuous production since.

Séan McGirr has run the house since 2023. The approach is the same one McQueen established: tailoring built to the highest technical standard, then taken somewhere Savile Row would not follow.

Signature pieces:

The Skull Scarf. The Oversized Sneaker. Sharp-shouldered tailoring.

Mulberry

Founded 1971 by Roger Saul in Somerset.

Roger Saul startedMulberry in 1971 with £500 and a kitchen table in Somerset. He named it after the mulberry trees he walked past each morning.

The Bayswater launched in 2003. It became the British luxury handbag. Still made by hand in Somerset. Over 600 craftspeople. Two factories. More than half of the bags still produced in Britain.

Signature pieces:

The Bayswater. The Alexa. The Amberley.

Vivienne Westwood

Founded 1971 by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren in London.

Vivienne Westwood

borrowed from 17th and 18th century tailoring and opened a boutique on the King's Road with Malcolm McLaren in 1971. The Sex Pistols wore the clothes. Most people in British fashion at the time did not understand what was happening.

Her first catwalk show came in 1981. She died in December 2022. Andreas Kronthaler continues as creative director. Nothing about the house has been softened.

Signature pieces:

The corset dress. The Orb logo. Harris Tweed tailoring.

Stella McCartney

Founded 2001 by Stella McCartney in London.

No fur. No leather. From day one in 2001, Stella McCartney built the house around a position that most of the industry considered impractical.

Twenty-five years on, that position is a reference point. The Falabella, a chain-trimmed structured tote made without any animal product, is the defining piece. TheAdidas partnership extends the same thinking into sport.

Signature pieces:

The Falabella. Tailored suiting. Adidas collaborations.

Dunhill

Founded 1893 by Alfred Dunhill in London.

Alfred Dunhill inherited a saddlery business in 1893 at 21. He turned it into a luxury accessories house built around the motor car.Dunhill eventually dressed Frank Sinatra. The suits are still produced to the same standard.

Simon Holloway took creative direction in 2023. The work is grounded in British mill fabrics and Savile Row construction.

Bourdon House in Mayfair holds everything at once: the store, a bespoke tailoring department, a barbershop, and a private members' club.

Signature pieces:

Bespoke tailoring. Leather goods. The White Spot pipe.

Wales Bonner

Founded 2014 by Grace Wales Bonner in London.

Grace Wales Bonner graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2014. Her BA collection won the L'Oréal Professional Talent Award before she had left the building. The LVMH Prize came two years later. She was 25.

Wales Bonner

sits between tailoring and research. The African diaspora. Jazz. Reggae. Black Atlantic identity. These things are not inspiration boards. They are load-bearing structures inside the work itself.

TheAdidas Originals collaboration produced sneakers that sold out before the wider market had registered they existed. In 2025, Wales Bonner was appointed creative director ofHermès menswear. The first woman of Black heritage to lead a major luxury fashion house at that level.

Signature pieces:

Tailored tracksuits. Wales Bonner x Adidas Samba. Jewel-embellished knitwear.

Where International Buyers Shop British Luxury Fashion

Most of these houses have flagships on or nearNew Bond Street in Mayfair. No other street in Britain concentrates this much luxury retail in one place.

Harrods

in Knightsbridge.Selfridges on Oxford Street. Both carry most of these houses. Both offer range that no single boutique can match.

Liberty

on Great Marlborough Street works differently. Their edit is tighter. Wales Bonner and Stella McCartney sit alongside a selection built on curation rather than coverage. Worth an afternoon on its own terms.

Bicester Village

in Oxfordshire is where past-season pieces from several of these houses surface. Different pace. Different purpose. Still worth knowing.

For a full guide to London's retail landscape, ourLondon luxury shopping guide covers the streets, the stores, and what each offers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the biggest British luxury fashion brands?

Burberry, Alexander McQueen, Mulberry, Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney, Dunhill, and Wales Bonner. Seven houses. Seven distinct ideas of what British craft can be.

Can I buy British luxury brands outside the UK?

Yes. All seven brands ship internationally through their own channels. WeCarryBags also sources from London boutiques for clients in the UAE, India, South Korea, and beyond, with worldwide fulfilment.

Can WeCarryBags source sold-out British fashion?

Yes. Sold-out pieces, discontinued styles, things that were gone before you got to the boutique. Share what you are looking for and the personal shopping team works through the network until it is found.

Where do tourists shop luxury fashion in London?

Bond Street for flagship access. Harrods for range under one roof. Liberty for a curated British edit. Selfridges for the broadest designer selection. Bicester Village for past-season pieces at a considered pace.

How WeCarryBags Sources British Luxury Fashion for You

British luxury pieces move quickly. A Mulberry Bayswater in a seasonal colourway. A Burberry trench in the right size. A Wales Bonner piece that sold before most people knew it had dropped.

WeCarryBags sources directly from boutiques and trusted networks across London and beyond. Share what you are looking for. We find it, verify it where needed, and get it to you wherever you are.

For pre-loved British luxury, every piece passes throughEntrupy AI authentication at 99.86% accuracy before anything is confirmed. Theauthentication process covers what buyers need to know before committing.

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