BC Business
Trench Coats | BCBusiness
The intelligence on the coat we all need to do business in on the Wet Coast.
Given its combative origins it’s fitting that the light gabardine or poplin raincoat, which rose to prominence during the First World War, is at the centre of a conflict between competing British outerwear labels. Aquascutum and Burberry both lay claim to the coat’s invention, the former’s waterproof wool dating back to the 1850s and the latter’s argument hingeing on a design submitted to the U.K. War Office in 1901.
In peacetime, the military association of the trench—so dubbed by frontline soldiers—lent an unassailable respectability to business attire for men and, by the mid-20th century, for women as well. It retains many of its vestigial martial flourishes, such as button-close straps on the shoulders that once secured officers’ epaulettes and D-rings on the waist belt, used to attach a sword hilt or map case.
HIS Burberry taupe trench, $1,050, holtrenfrew.com Mount Cashmere scarf, $215, mountcashmere.comHERS Holt Renfrew red trench, $1,250, holtrenfrew.com Chloë Angus wool scarf, $129, chloeangus.com Hermès Soya gloves, $1,050, hermes.com