“During the Crimean War, the commanding officers of the British army were themselves dandy aristocrats, more interested in outdoing each other with outstanding uniforms and military regalia than in military strategy,” commented one fashion editor on the relationship between military fashion and military strategies. This may be part of the reason why many items of clothing originally worn by soldiers and officers became indispensable items of clothing, especially in the men’s wardrobe, and even more often promoted so successfully by soldiers that civilians simply could not resist them.
For example, the trench coat that Thomas Burberry came up with while watching farmers in the fields wearing linen coats. They were rather impractical and impervious to changing weather conditions, but in 1856 he decided to start making outdoor clothing and leisure equipment.
But he wasn’t the happiest with his work. He had everything, just not the right material. He began to play with yarns and their treatment until, in 1880, he invented a way to treat yarn so that the fabric would be more resistant to water absorption and would not tear.
He wanted to make a practical coat that local doctors visiting their patients at home would feel comfortable in and arrive dry in wet weather. But it was not only doctors who needed such a coat.
After he made his first raincoat in the late 1890s, it became a big hit because its materials allowed the skin to breathe, whereas the old raincoats were made of air-tight material that smelled of rubber and were uncomfortable to wear.
Burberry’s reputation for raincoats is growing. He became the outfitter for expeditions to Antarctica, the Arctic and the Himalayas, and in 1901 he presented his invention to British Army officers. They were also convinced. The trench coat became a military garment, although in 1914, when World War I began, Thomas Burberry, at the request of the British army, modified it slightly to make it more suitable for winter conditions.
After the First World War, it became an indispensable part of the military wardrobe, especially in the US Army, but in the Second World War it was more or less abandoned because its length and weight made it rather cumbersome, and replaced by shorter jackets.
The coat was long and loose, so that it could also serve as a headdress when needed. The extra fabric on the shoulders allowed water to drain off the back instead of soaking into the shoulder area. A double front fastening provided extra protection against the cold, and large pockets were used to stow maps and other essentials. There was no belt and no belt loops, although they were not there for decoration, as the soldiers hung bombs from them.
The shoulder straps, which usually held caps and gloves, and the wrist straps were also extremely practical, as in the rain the soldiers used them to tighten the sleeves to prevent water from getting underneath them. The wool collar kept them warm, as did the inner wool layer, which could be removed on warm days.
But even though the trench coat was originally primarily a military garment, it did not end up on the scrapheap after the war, since it had already been adopted by civilians. Quite spontaneously and unobtrusively, it moved into the world of fashion, changing from a raincoat into a sports coat.
Burberry is best known for it, although Aqascutum claims it is their invention, as trench coats were supplied to British soldiers as early as the Crimean War, in 1853. But their coats have never become as recognisable as Burberry’s, even though the coat has changed so much since the 1960s, when fashion designers got their hands on it, that it is almost unrecognisable.
Designers have made it a little narrower and shorter, taken away the patches and sometimes added embellishments, played with colours and started to make it out of materials that do not protect it from the rain. But whatever they have done to it, the trench coat has always been and will always be, above all, a practical head covering with a touch of elegance.
It has become an indispensable garment for businessmen, but also for those who prefer to move on the fringes of society. When it is made of leather, as Keanu Reeves wore it in the Matrix trilogy, it conveys danger, but it always exudes a certain mystery, which is why it has always been worn by spies, agents, soldiers and other dangerous characters throughout film history.
But while modern trench coats are very interesting, they are not classic. The original trench coat has suffered the fate of many items of clothing that have flooded the streets because of the military – its popularity has risen and fallen over the last century, being at one time the most coveted item of clothing and at another time completely forgotten.
Sailors know what’s good
The duffle jacket, the only men’s classic hooded jacket, was not so lucky. It was an indispensable part of men’s wardrobes in the 1950s and 1960s, but then it lost its charm and never regained it, although it never disappeared from the streets. Men have forgotten a little about the iconic image of British General Barnard Monty Montgomery, who loved the jacket so much that even his wax doll was dressed in it, or Sir David Stirling, the founder of the British Special Forces, who did not give it up even in the hot African desert.
But after World War II, duffle jackets also flooded the streets of Britain because the army sent those who no longer needed them. Artists, students and intellectuals in particular adopted them, and Jean Cocteau liked the one in atypical white.
Legend has it that the birthplace of these legendary jackets is the Belgian town of Duffel, where a coarse black woollen fabric called duffle was made. The jacket is said to be named after it, and perhaps it is, although it actually originated in England.
John Partridge, who was probably inspired by the Poles, started making them there in 1887. They had already been wearing a similar short and wide jacket with a hood, large pockets and a loop fastening around 1820, but it did not catch the British eye until the late 19th century, when the British Royal Navy was looking for a sturdy garment to protect its sailors from the weather.
The duffle jacket has become an indispensable companion for sailors on long voyages, but it was never made of Belgian wool. In fact, from 1900, the British military top brass demanded that all the material used to make their clothes had to be British.
Churchill’s choice
But the duffle jacket is not the only one that has become a staple in men’s wardrobes thanks to sailors. Perhaps even more popular than the duffle jacket is the double-breasted wool jacket, better known as the pea jacket.
Dutch sailors wore a version of it as early as around 1800, and soon British sailors wanted it too. As the word pea in Dutch described the coarse woollen fabric from which it was made, the British sailors took it up and adapted it a little, and the pea jacket was born.
One theory is that it grew out of Edgar Camplin, who started selling a similar jacket to the British Navy in the 1850s, and then proposed to make a different one for officers to distinguish them from ordinary sailors. So the jacket was born, the story goes, called the p. jacket and later renamed the pea jacket.
There is no evidence for this theory, just as there is none for the claim that American sailors wanted this particular jacket because British sailors had it too, but the fact is that it became popular in the US Navy, especially among those sailors who had to climb the rigging.
But however the Dutch, British and US navies came up with the jackets, all three needed a durable garment that could withstand heavy rain, high winds and cold temperatures. That is why the jackets of all three navies, although they differed little from each other, were relatively snug to withstand the wind, only widening at the hips to make it easier to climb the ropes.
Almost all of them had a double-breasted closure and an elongated collar that could be raised and closed below the neck, vertical pockets that were easy to reach into, and brass or plastic buttons with an anchor motif stamped on them. All were made of densely woven and heat-treated wool to make the fibres more adhesive and wind-resistant.
Pea jackets are still quite popular in autumn and winter, even though the cut is much tighter than it used to be. But not in all models. Many brands still make classic pea jackets, such as the one worn by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the Second World War.
The Navy obviously had a big influence on fashion, because that’s also where the white cotton T-shirt made for the US Army in 1913 came from. At the time, the US Army needed a garment that would be suitable for the tropical environment and the heat of submarines, but also easier to maintain than nice uniforms, so it would be suitable for dirty jobs.
From the sky to the streets
But pilots have also contributed to fashion. For example, they made the aviator jacket fashionable. During the First World War, most planes did not have enclosed cockpits, so they had to find a way to protect pilots from the icy cold at high altitudes and speeds.
British aviators chose long leather coats, while the Americans introduced rugged short leather flight jackets in September 1917. Their collars were massive to keep them warm, they simply zipped up, and they were compressed around the waist and at the sleeves.
In 1931, an improved version of this jacket, called the A2, became a standard part of the pilot’s wardrobe. Initially made of sealskin and lined with cotton, as more and more A2 jackets were needed, seal hunting was no longer the most practical choice. With horses at hand and in abundance, they started to make A2 jackets out of horsehide.
With two front pockets, they reached down to the waist and were finished there and on the sleeves with a strong fabric that was supposed to protect the pilots from air infiltration. It is this fabric that is today the hallmark of pilot jackets.
Glasses for all times
Pilots have given another fashion icon, the Ray-Ban Aviators sunglasses, or pilot’s goggles as they are popularly called, which were created at the request of Lieutenant and test pilot John MacCready. When he realised that his eyesight was irreversibly deteriorating due to the sun’s rays he was exposed to in his balloon, he turned to Bausch & Lomb, a company that was otherwise involved in the production of corrective spectacles.
He asked them for glasses that would successfully protect his eyes and prevent glare, but would also be stylish. In 1936, they found a solution – polarising glasses, which cancel out blinding light reflections, improve the image and reduce eye fatigue. The glasses were inserted into frames, the lower part of which was extended slightly towards the cheek to offer better protection to the eyes of pilots who were constantly looking towards their instruments.
The army snatched them up, civilians noticed them and the designers changed them a little after replacing the original plastic frame with a metal one. Today, they are the official version of the pilot’s goggles that became irreversibly popular when a war photograph of General Douglas MacArthur wearing them flooded the newspapers, and had a second spring when Tom Cruise wore them in the 1986 blockbuster Top Gun. The film filled the box office, Ray-Ban sold 50% more pilot sunglasses than the year before and the US military was flooded with young people suddenly wanting to become pilots en masse.
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Rubber fashion accessory
The Wellington boot was reawakened in 2005 by top model Kate Moss, who wore a short skirt and a pair of Wellington boots to a music festival, although the origins of this most famous of Wellington boots date back to 1817, when General Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, commissioned a new pair of boots from his cobbler.
He didn’t want the trousers that men used to wear, wide and rolled down, but ones that he could get underneath, in line with the new fashion rules that brought men trousers with wider, long trousers.
But it was not only him who got the boots, history got them too. Originally leather wellington boots, or wellis as they are still called today, they became the fashion hit of the time. When Charles Goodyear “invented” rubber, they became indispensable.
Not that you didn’t know rubber before. South American Indians used rubber tree sap to soak their feet in buckets filled with it. They are said to have held them over a fire to turn the rubber into waterproof footwear, and in between they were kept out of the flames for a while, because this was not the most pleasant technique for making rubber boots.
When Columbus discovered America, he reported two discoveries: a rubber ball that bounces and boots made of the same material. Everyone soon realised that rubber was a great material with great promise, and rubber boots were made from it, but they were impractical. The material reacted to changes in temperature, but also to sunlight and grease. The rubber soles softened and stuck to the ground in the heat and cracked in the cold.
In 1837, Charles Goodyear accidentally dropped sulphur into a hot rubber boiler. To his surprise, he got what everyone was looking for – a material that the weather had no influence on. He named the chemical reaction that made this possible Vulcanisation after the Roman god of fire, Vulcan, and patented the process in 1844. He was so in love with rubber, its durability, lightness and waterproofness that he imagined a world where it would be used to make everything.
Boots too. In Britain, they had their breakthrough with the First World War, when the military top brass ordered one million two hundred thousand pairs of rubber boots to protect their soldiers from inclement weather. After the war, women and children adopted the footwear, which had once been the fashionable and elegant acquisition of upper-class gentlemen, and its practicality and comfort made it the first choice of peasants and workers.
They soon realised that it protected them not only from moisture and rain, but also from cold and injury. The Americans realised the same. They adopted the famous Wellington boots in the second half of the 19th century and threw away their wooden slip-ons or leather shoes, because practice had taught them that rubber boots made them sick less often and made them more efficient at work.
The boots were more or less boring. Green, brown or black for adults, yellow or blue for children. They were of the usual sizes and standard shapes, because that was the only way the manufacturers could ensure that they remained cheap and accessible.
Thanks to Kate Moss, they became a fashion hit only after 2005, when they turned into a fashion accessory that people wear even when the sun is shining and where rain is chronically scarce. Their prices have therefore skyrocketed in fashion, but their quality has remained the same. Or worse. Even if they are marketed as rubber, they are not necessarily waterproof, breathable as they should be, or made purely of rubber, which the originals certainly were.
Soft-step boots
Since they hit the streets, Dr Martens have never been boring, although the young German doctor Klaus Märtens had no intention of creating a fashion hit. On the contrary, he only wanted to help himself.
During World War II, he injured his ankle while skiing in the Alps and was simply unable to walk in his heavy army boots. He tried to find a pair of shoes that would ease the pain he was suffering, but none of them suited him. He had to do it himself.
He played around a bit with softer leathers and cushioned soles until he and Herbert Funck, a doctor, made boots that had air in the sole. His stride was now softer because the sole was soft, but also because he felt less the impact of his feet on the hard surface when walking and running.
The story would have ended there if he had not started making the shoes that cushioned the step so well after the war, even though they did not spread around the world until he sold the rights to make them to the British shoe manufacturer R. Griggs on 1 April 1960.
He added a yellow stripe to the classic black boot and a legend was born, although to this day no one knows why German walking boots were so popular with everyone from punks to cops and from the far right to socialists.
While British factory workers and postmen were the first to discover their practical beauty, as they could easily spend a day in them, Pete Townshend, guitarist and lyricist of the Who, bought his first pair of Dr Martens in 1966.
He supposedly chose them because he was tired of the loose clothes worn in the sixties, but the new shoes fitted his new image: ‘I was fed up with being dressed like a Christmas tree, in loose clothes that distracted me when I was playing the guitar.’ The soft soles made it easier for him to hop around the stage, and the boots were a constant reminder of his roots.
He came from a working-class background, and it was the working class that first adopted the shoe, but now Pete Townshend has taken it in a completely different direction – into popular culture. He is said to have made them popular with young people, and also with Elton John, who wore a slightly dramatised version of the boots in the 1975 rock opera Tommy.
His boots are now in the Northampton Museum, and the ones everyone else wore in the 1970s are probably in the scrap heap. Because Dr Martins boots were always made to be worn, and even the subculture couldn’t resist them, even though they usually relied on individuality.
Quite unintentionally, they also became synonymous with violence when skinheads and British football hooligans chose them as their footwear. On their feet, they were a weapon when they kicked opponents with the metal part that reinforced the front. Ironically, the same boots were also worn by the police officers who tried to subdue them.
Dr Martens’ boots once entered Parliament. They were worn by Tony Benn MP, who died in 2014 aged 89. He was introduced to them by his son in the 1970s and found them comfortable. “I have worn them regularly ever since,” he said in his old age.
But shoes that have come about because a young German soldier tried to soften his step do not age with those who wear them. They are rediscovered by each new generation, as they are one of the most iconic shoes in the world, and their makers have sent more than a thousand versions to market. They have even been turned into wedding boots made of lace, and Pope John Paul II is said to have had his own pair in white.
Desert Semitic
Another immortal shoe, the desert shoe, or the so-called Semitic shoe, comes from the same war. During the Second World War, Allied soldiers in Africa battled not only the enemy, but also the desert sand and heat. Long marches in heavy army boots were sometimes more than they were prepared to bear, particularly because the suffering in them was simply unnecessary.
They set off for Cairo. In the bazaar, they asked the craftsmen to make them ankle-high, relatively durable shoes. They had to give them enough support to walk comfortably, but above all they had to be light enough to rest their feet.
They were given cheap ankle boots with smooth soles made of raw rubber, without any cuts to make them suitable for walking on sand. The upper was made of suede, which was lighter than the classic leather used for military boots, but still offered enough support.
They were so effective that almost all Allied soldiers had them made, and when they were moved to other battlefields, they took them with them. Nathan Clark had just been in Burma when he noticed that many officers wore simple leather shoes with raw rubber soles in their spare time. They were made for them in Cairo, he was told, and the whole story was explained to him.
Nathan was the grandson of James Clark, the founder of the famous British shoemaking company, and he immediately started making his own prototype shoe from newspapers. He sent the cut-outs and sketches home from Burma to a small English village called Street in Somerset.
When he returned to England after the end of the war, he sought out the best leathers and found the best shoemakers to put his idea into practice. At a time when men’s shoes were made of hard leather, he stitched his soft suede on a raw rubber sole, and for his desert shoes, as he called them, he chose orange thread to give them a distinctive stamp. It was all the more noticeable on the beige leather, which reminded him of the place from which they originated.
He believed that they would be a bestseller, his business partners that they would “never sell out”. He did not throw a gun in the corn. In 1949, he went to America and presented them at a shoe fair.
The Semis became famous overnight. They were casual, yet elegant enough to be the perfect shoe for a generation of men who wanted comfortable shoes, but didn’t want to give up formal clothes altogether. They are said to have been the world’s first casual shoe, although they were also popular with workers because they were cheap.
As is the custom, however, they soon turned from workers’ shoes into fashion icons, when revolutionaries, artists, philosophers and fashion enthusiasts could no longer separate themselves from them.
