Wind- and rain-battered denizens of northern Europe: next time a sun-kissed expat ridicules you about the adverse climate in your domicile of choice, point out to them the sartorial benefits of it regularly being necessary to sport one of the most iconic garments in the menswear canon: the trench coat, a concept whose evolution began when men still wore puffed sleeves and breeches.
Origins
The story of the trench coat begins a good while before they were worn by officer-class denizens of the hellish ditches in Flanders, after which the garment is named: as early as 1823, in fact, when Charles Macintosh invented weatherproof outerwear made from rubberised cotton. Later that century, London-based gentlemen’s clothier John Emary patented a superior element-cheating fabric, and thus renamed his company ‘Aquascutum’, which derives from Latin for ‘water’ and ‘shield’.
The next development came with a little shy of six decades still to unfold before The Great War would erupt when – inspired, improbably enough, by the lanolin-coated waterproof smocks worn by Hampshire shepherds – a 21-year-old draper by the name of Thomas Burberry invented gabardine. A twill fabric that is simultaneously breathable and weatherproof, Burberry achieved its remarkable properties by coating each individual strand of fibre instead of the whole fabric. Notable aviators, explorers and adventurers of the time (Sir Ernest Shackleton braved Antarctica in 1907 using coats and tents made from the fabric) gradually cottoned on, so to speak. Long-range weaponry available by The Crimean War saw garishly conspicuous uniforms slip out of fashion, and by World War I the need to blend into the landscape was imperative, as was the mobility to burst into action at short notice. Hence, the utilitarian, functional, camouflaged coat we know and love today, with shoulder straps and D-rings, came into being.
