Military Dress and Mens Outdoor
doi:10.1093/jdh/epr014
Journal of Design History
Vol. 24 No. 2
The Author [2011]. Published
by Oxford University Press on
behalf of The Design History
Society. All rights reserved.
Leisurewear: Burberrys Trench Coat
in First World War Britain
Jane Tynan
This article explores the emergence of the trench coat through a range of First World
War British press advertisements. The rush to khaki in 1914 drove many firms to employ
the language of wartime economy in their promotions. Burberry was a case in point;
the firms images promoted protective clothing for harsh weather conditions but were
novel enough to suggest that they could create active healthy bodies for the war
effort. This article explores how new tailoring thrived in wartime Britain, owing to the
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official demand to clothe new army officers, who were recruited from a wide range of
social classes. Rather than idealize mens bodies through the traditional symbols of
class, Burberry updated the military body by combining established ideas of leisure with
new concepts of war work. Their waterproof coats became synonymous with the war
because the designs incorporated War Office requirements with traditional aspects of
leisurewear. Nonetheless, its military features did not confine the trench coat to army
use, and it became a popular garment during and after the war. Burberry resolved the
contradictions of the wartime trade by offering practical, mass-produced clothing,
which bore the marks of sporting leisure. The firms modernizing approach was
represented by the image of a man in a trench coat, a figure that embodied the
militarizing of the home front during wartime.
Keywords:First World Warmasculinitysocial classtrench coatwork and leisure
Introduction
Army clothing has long played a role in military socialization. Uniform describes rank in
the army, often determined by the social class from which soldiers are recruited. During
the First World War, the author of a tailoring guide put it thus: The British Officer is not
of such an erect or square shoulder build as the members of the rank and file, the drill
he puts in is less exacting, and the labour he has to perform is less heavy, so that he
does not develop the muscles of his shoulders or produce so much prominence of chest
as those who are under him.1 To guide tailors who made military uniforms, Vincents
drafting guide sought to describe the typical body type of the officer. Distinct patterns
were not borne out of practical concerns, as the trade guide suggests, but were used
to represent army hierarchies. While the guide appeared to attribute variance in body
type to the work habits that divided officers and other ranks, instead it reveals how
clothing was used to make class distinctions. Uniform was a key site for the expression
of social hierarchy in the army, not just through explicit badges of rank but also in the
physicality of the bodies that bore them.
Quintin Colville, in his study of military socialization in the British navy in the 1930s,
argues that naval uniform defined particular understandings of class and masculinity,
where the uniform was made to seem not a personal claim to status but an official
139
authentication of status.2 The social class of civilians determined what uniforms they
could wear. In peacetime Britain, social class is a key determinant of how people are
regarded and, as David Cannadine observes, the key signifiers are ancestry, accent,
education, deportment, mode of dress, patterns of recreation, type of housing and
style of life.3 In wartime, army clothing distinguished soldier from civilian, but also
ranked recruits according to their social background. Those on the home front, how-
ever, without the knowledge to read uniform codes, only saw khaki. Mass mobilization
meant that khaki itself became the symbol of military participation. As the economic
historian Laura Ugolini argues, in First World War Britain the social pressure to partici-
pate in the war effort was such that men who wore elegant leisure-time clothes be-
came associated with shirkers or profiteers.4 Once civilian men were officially sought
for active service, the leisure of upper-class mens dress took on negative connotations.
Images of men in uniform, which suggested the utility of the male body, made khaki
service dress a significant part of wartime visual culture. When various parts of the
tailoring trade got involved in khaki contracts, advertisements for mens clothing
made a virtue of war business by using the visual language of utility to sell products to
civilians as well as soldiers.

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As Joanna Bourke argues, owing to the scale and nature of military participation, war
ascribed new values to mens bodies.5 By May 1917, it was clear that trench warfare
was altering images of men in popular culture, when an advertisement for the Thresher
Field Jerkin appeared in The Sphere promoting a working war coat from Thresher and
Glenny of the Strand in London [1].6 A drawing of a heavy-set man smoking a cigarette
was chosen to show off the belted, double-breasted coat, and the caption read, War
is work, and the essential feature of the Field Jerkin is that it is built for work.7 This
promotion sets up my argument about the social construction of military masculinities,
specifically the role of popular culture in shaping civilian ideas about mens appearance.
If images of leisure were fraught, such representations of work adapted advertisements
for mens clothing to wartime concerns. This strong black and white drawing of a sol-
dier in a trench wearing a working war coat embodied the physicality of practical
soldiering.8 If functional garments gained a desirableeven fashionableimage dur-
ing wartime, this article explores how firms promoting clothing for military or civilian
wear became conscious of the value of utility as a presentational technique. It was
clear that while the war was changing the values ascribed to mens bodies, advertisers
saw that incorporating work values altered popular perceptions of ideal masculine
lifestyles.

Tailored khaki
Before the First World War, army clothing was a signifier of class distinction. Officers
went to the First World War in uniforms developed during colonial campaigns, but the
1911 regulations prescribed the design and presentation of their uniforms. Privates
were issued with loose ready-made tunics, while officers wore tailored khaki, described
by the regulations: cut as a lounge coat to the waist, very loose at the chest and shoul-
ders, but fitted at the waist.9 Known in the tailoring trade as a very expensive form of
dress, in the late nineteenth century the British officers uniform was estimated by the
tailor T. H. Holding to cost between 40 and 200.10 In contrast, privates were often
issued with outfits of poor quality. Distinct practices regarding the design, making,
presentation and wearing of army clothing reflected the significance of mens civilian
clothing habits to their army identities. The benefits of linking education, taste, art and
good tailoring were clear from a 1915 Tailor and Cutter article on officers uniforms:
There are two outstanding features in the garments worn by the British officer to-day,

140 Burberrys Trench Coat in First World War Britain

 namely, the practicability of the style and a general high standard of workmanship. We
attribute this happy state of affairs mainly to the influence of an educated class backed
up by tailor artists.11 During wartime, the tailoring trade found that the well-dressed
officer embodied the combined virtues of utility and style. Keen to establish links with
the officer corps, the trade attempted to elevate its craft by association with the higher
ranks of the army, but they were also mindful of wartime economy. Advertising promo-
tions for mens clothing reflected the symbolic value placed on the social background
of the officer, which could link army clothing production with more established parts of
the tailoring trade.

If tailored khaki was associated with social power, it was because officers were
traditionally recruited from the upper classes. Popular acceptance of the gentlemanly
figure as ideal military material originated in the nineteenth-century tendency to fa-
vour this type in the formation of an officer class: The Army did not want profes-
sional soldiers, for these it regarded as potential military adventurers; it wanted
gentlemen amateurs whose principal loyalty lay with the social class from which
they were recruited.12 As Siegfried Sassoon observed, the life of the gentleman
was a preparation for military adventure, Ordering my uniform from Craven &

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Sons was quite enjoyablealmost like getting hunting clothes.13 The army had
relied upon the officer-gentleman tradition to form an officer corps to defend the
values and interests of the ruling class.14 Sharing a common education and training
meant that The common educational background of the majority of the officer
class also helped to ensure that country-house values permeated the officers
mess.15 Despite challenges to the officer-gentleman code in the late nineteenth
century, this traditional pattern continued to have a pervasive cultural influence in
the army.16 Nonetheless, as a result of very high casualties amongst this social elite
during the First World War, the British army began to recruit officers from
non-traditional sources.17 Indeed, the use of the term temporary gentlemen was
a reminder that many officers were commissioned specifically for the duration of
the war. Over half were not from the traditional officer class, but came from a
range of middle-class, manual and non-manual occupations.18 Casualties and army
expansion accounted for a significant alteration in patterns of recruitment, and
changed the social and educational background of British officers during the First
World War.19

Following his appointment as Secretary of State for War in August 1914, Lord Kitchener
issued a call to arms for civilian volunteers to create the new armies.20 Civilian atti-
tudes started to permeate every aspect of army life, when mass volunteer enlistment
upset the relative order of the regular army.21 Up to that point, social class divisions in
British civilian life might have been reproduced in the army, but volunteer enlistment
and new methods of officer recruitment led to a new social mobility, at least for the
duration of the war. For an army that had been very careful to uphold the officer-gen-
tleman tradition, the variety of regimental officers and the means by which they
reached those ranks represented a revolution in the social make-up of the officer corps.
This article is concerned with how military dress and appearance embodied this new
social mobility in the army. If a certain mode of dress and deportment were the norms
of gentlemanly behaviour, how did new army officers meet the expected standards of
dress? As Sassoons account shows, social mobility did not diminish the desirability of
the tailored suit inside or outside the army. It did, however, mean that more men, from
a greater variety of social backgrounds, had to purchase the uniform clothing required
for British army officers. According to the fashion historian Christopher Breward,
despite scientific developments in tailoring, and the variety of clothiers and outfitters

Jane Tynan 141

providing ready to wear, the vanishing reality of traditional tailoring still held connota-
tions of gentlemanliness.22 Regardless of how army clothing was made, clothing pro-
motions for uniform continued to rely upon the symbolic power of tailoring. This sense
of tradition was what Siegfried Sassoon observed when he made a visit to his tailor to
be fitted for his uniform:

To the best of my knowledge the firm was exclusively military ... . This represen-
tative of Craven & Sons was like the royal family; he never forgot a name. He must
have known the Army List from cover to cover, for he had called on nearly every
officers mess in the country during the periodical pilgrimages on which the pros-
perity of his firm depended.23

The staff in the tailors shop knew that army knowledge boosted business. Sassoon was
reassured by references to polo and the Royal Family, and as Laura Ugolini suggests,
retailers continued to make these efforts after the war, reflected in interiors associated
not with commerce or tailoring, but with leisured and elite male lifestyles.24 For new
army officers, who had no access to the elitism of tailoring, did the purchase of uniform
involve social anxiety? As Sassoons account conveys, for those getting their uniforms

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fitted, the tailors shop could offer a sense of tradition that assumed the officer came
from the upper classes. Sassoon observed that dress was the most visible sign of the
new social mobility in the army; in particular, he noted that his tailor clearly disap-
proved of the appearance of some new army officers. Despite their best efforts, many
new army officers did not look the part, and their shabby dress was used as evidence
of their unsuitability for the higher ranks of the army.

Your Countrys Call

In pre-war Britain, the outdoor leisure pursuits associated with the upper classes were
strongly associated with military masculinities. According to the social geographer
Rachel Woodward, the British countryside was advocated as an ideal space in which to
become a man.25 All of which made it possible to use the countryside in a popular war-
time poster, Your Countrys Call, to recruit men to the army.26 A gentle rural image of
fields and homesteads provides the backdrop for the poster, which depicts a soldier
pointing to the scene to ask, Isnt this worth fighting for?27 Various tactics were used
to recruit men to the army, but an appeal to defend the land itself revealed the power
of the countryside in the popular imagination, and the desire to preserve the freedom
and authenticity of an idealized rural way of life. Advertisements for uniforms, which
appeared in the wartime press, drew on these ideas by making allusions to civilian
open-air leisure pursuits. One such advertisement for Foxs F. I. P. Puttees appeared in
The Sphere in July 1915, and depicted a slim soldier sitting in a field peering through
his binoculars.28 His slim-fitting tunic, the cut of the breeches and the cuff decoration
suggest he wears an officers uniform and puttees as prescribed by the dress regula-
tions: Woollen, to match the colour of the Service dress.29 Without the uniform or the
caption At the Front, the lone soldier sitting amongst grassy hills could be mistaken
for a country gentleman. With no hint of the industrial warfare that characterized the
western front, nor any attempt to convey the mud of the trenches, the image appears
to idealize men at war. Its emphasis on leisure, however, suggests that the creation of
the image was informed by social values associated with the officer corps of the pre-
war regular army. Sitting in the sunshine, clothed from head to toe in tailored khaki,
the figure in this promotion appears to be enjoying gentle leisure pursuits in the coun-
tryside. By emphasizing the individual, the image romanticized the lone soldier, to sug-
gest a link between upper-class leisure pursuits and trench warfare on the western

142 Burberrys Trench Coat in First World War Britain

 front. By drawing on traditional ideas about the class make-up of the army, the image
equated the life of the army officer with that of the country gentleman.

In popular culture, this image of the military man managed to survive even the worst
realities of war. The hard work of trench warfare had little in common with gentle
countryside pursuits. Neither was the freedom associated with open-air pastimes avail-
able to soldiers confined to cramped, dirty, unhygienic trench conditions. This was no
barrier to advertisers making the spurious link between outdoor leisure and trench war-
fare. In fact, in promotions for military clothing, the preference for images of leisure
had more to do with the social concerns of the home front. As argued by the sociolo-
gist Thornstein Veblen, in the nineteenth century a preoccupation with clothing that
signified leisure reflected the social aspirations of a new middle class.30 By the new cen-
tury, promotional images for mens clothing continued to use sports and recreational
activities to create a desire for the conspicuous leisure of the upper classes. In Veblens
account, displays of leisure disavow the spectacle of work. More recent studies, which
draw attention to the social and historical construction of leisure in modernity, chal-
lenge the false separation of leisure and work.31 Instead of describing life at the front,
and the work involved in trench warfare, this 1915 advertisement for Foxs F. I. P.

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Puttees from The Sphere drew in male consumers by creating an image of soldiering
as a lifestyle of outdoor leisure. False though the separation of work and leisure might
be, this wartime promotion for clothing did not risk explicit references to trench war-
fare and instead found in the image of the country gentleman the ideal draw for male
consumers.

In popular culture, war stories and games took place in rural settings. Masculine adven-
ture was a key theme in boyhood culture, where rural spaces offered escape from nor-
mality, and the promise of freedom.32 If modern concepts of leisure rely upon the
appeal of escape from the regulation of work, then the countryside became the place
to escape to. The urbanrural division reflected a whole discourse in pre-war Britain that
idealized the countryside. As argued by Caroline Dakers, there was a return to the
land in the period leading up to the war.33 Raymond Williams traced the historical div-
ision of urban and rural through enduring images and associations in English writing.34
Positive ideas dissociated from the mercantilism of city life gave the country-house
force in the romantic re-imagining of Englishness, even when the class dimension was
ignored. For Paul Fussell, the First World War intensified good feelings amongst British
soldiers about the English countryside, despite the horror that took place in the rural
landscapes of Belgium and France. He argues that the pastoral in war literature placed
the terror of the conflict in perspective, whilst acting as a defence against its worst hor-
rors, it is a comfort in itself, like rum, a deep dugout, or a woolly vest.35 Indeed, Alun
Howkins saw the First World War as a defining moment for a discourse that linked rur-
ality with English national identity through rural references in war poetry, the agricul-
tural work of trench warfare and contrasts between the countryside at war and
peace.36 While there were wartime anxieties about the excessive luxury of masculine
appearance, advertisers saw that the countryside scene could suggest a healthy active
lifestyle but also offered aspiration to a life of leisure. In wartime promotions for mens
clothing, rural scenes created acceptable images that were nostalgic and had strong
masculine undertones but also made the critical link with the war effort.

As the countryside was the venue for sporting and leisure pursuits of the English
gentleman, consumer goods were often promoted during wartime using the image
of the officer in open-air settings. If these images drew consumers in through the lure
of elite lifestyles, paradoxically they also sought to convince them that their desires

Jane Tynan 143

and aspirations were consistent with the war effort. Pastoral images romanticized the
image of the country gentleman, which proved a powerful recruiting agent in a war
fought by men in the countryside. The link with land originated in the traditional
army practice of accepting only propertied men for officering through the purchase
of commissions, a qualification abolished in the 1880s when army reforms encour-
aged mobility and professionalism.37 Even by the First World War, however, popular
images of men in Norfolk jackets and breeches could exploit the romance of the
gentleman-amateur lifestyle associated with the officer tradition. The figure of the
gentleman of leisure might have been attractive to a range of social classes in war-
time Britain, but as the war progressed, the countryside also took on new meanings.
As Williams argued, the countryside became widely viewed as elemental and regen-
erative: The working country, that is to say, was becoming, yet again but in a new
way, a place of physical and spiritual regeneration.38 The idea that outdoor leisure
was an escape from toil was losing currency, as the country was thought to regen-
erate men through the virtues of work. Williams concept of the working country
evokes a durable body, but one capable of transformation. As will be shown, a new
emphasis on the durability and flexibility of the wartime male body created a visual
language that enabled the trade to promote hard-working clothes to a range of so-

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cial classes.

Like much later wartime advertising, the advert for the working war coat by Thresher
and Glenny used images of work but also referenced tradition to express officers
desire for well-cut garments: Practical soldiering experience settled the length of it,
and a hundred years of military tailoring experience gave it that unmistakeable sol-
dier-cut [1].39 Whatever concessions were made to modernity in popular representa-
tions, they were not at the expense of ignoring the traditional class divisions on
which the tailoring trade depended. Regardless of the ready-to-wear quality of the
garment, the advertisement retains references to traditional tailoring. Thresher and
Glenny might have been selling a ready-made coat for practical wear, but their pro-
motion assured customers that they had been Military Tailors since the Crimean
War.40 Thus, the coexistence of images of work and leisure suggests that advertisers
were adapting to social changes in army and civilian life. Even so, to negotiate the
uncertainties of changing class relations in the army, firms keen to protect their
custom used promotions that carefully straddled tradition and modernity. Fantasies
of war were resilient enough to withstand many realities. In many ways this war ap-
peared to embody the regenerative qualities of the working country, but clearly the
tailoring trade also recognized that evoking the pleasures of gentlemanly leisure was
good for business.

Burberrys trench coats

Both military and civilian audiences were attracted by sport. In clothing promotions,
sport created images that reconciled the social values of peace and wartime. Graham
Dawson termed this merging of war and play the pleasure-culture of war.41 Also, by
1914 formal physical training programmes and organized sport were a feature of army
life.42 Field sports and competitive games fostered upper-class identity but were also
useful for physical training and social indoctrination. Burberry,43 a successful company
known for innovations in outdoor leisure wear, exploited that connection: the leisure of
the country gentleman, the masculinity of tailoring practices and the regenerative po-
tential of the working country were all incorporated into Burberrys visual rhetoric. Just
before the outbreak of war, a promotion appeared in Punch for The Burberry, a
weatherproof coat reaching below the knees and tied up to the neck.44 The man in the

144 Burberrys Trench Coat in First World War Britain

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Fig 1.A Working War Coat,
The Sphere, 26 May 1917, p. vii,
British Library Board
(shelfmark: LD48 NPL)

illustration plays golf, with a caption that describes the practicality and cut of the coat:
During twenty years it has been without a peer, its value has been attested by thou-
sands who appreciate its lightweight, ease, weatherproofness, perfect self-ventilating
properties, its longevity, and its distinguished hang.45 In the promotion, the Burberry
is recommended for discriminating Sportsmen and civiliansmen whose duties or
pleasures are out-of-doors.46 Even before the outbreak of war, Burberrys visual style
evoked the pleasures of outdoor leisure but its promotions to middle-class consumers
also emphasized the affordability of the firms ready-to-wear garments.

Jane Tynan 145

Prior to the First World War, Macintosh was the most common name
for waterproof coats. By the time Thomas Burberry patented a fabric
called gabardine for coats that later became known as Burberry, the
company had established itself as an innovator in the lucrative business
of waterproof coats.47 In the period leading up to the war there were,
however, many companies developing techniques for waterproof
dress, originally designed for recreational activities such as walking,
bicycling, shooting, riding, driving, fishing, hunting and camping. As
well as recreational use, waterproof clothing was also developed for avi-
ation. At a time when good waterproof coats were in demand, Burberrys
innovation was to create a breathable weatherproof cloth. While illus-
trated press advertisements and promotional publications such as Open
Spaces associated Burberry with the military, the ideal endorsement was
the more official kind, such as the announcement in The Times: Under
instructions from the War Office Messrs. Burberry, of 31, Haymarket,
have had the honour of designing the new service uniform for officers
which has been approved by his Majesty the King. They will be pleased
to show model garments and patterns of the new regulation materi-

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als.48 Indeed, a catalogue published during the war featured an en-
dorsement from Lord Kitchener for The Burberry weatherproof coat,
Lord Kitchener describes it as a most valuable addition to campaigning
kit.49 During wartime, Burberry traded on connections it had established
between the design of sportswear and the supply of military clothing.

The Burberry label was used to give mass-produced items the stamp of
authenticity, Every Genuine Burberry Garment is labelled Burberrys.50
Burberrys connections with the military were long standing. The firm
designed the Field Uniform for the British Army in 1902, which accord-
ing to a post-war Burberry publication was adapted from a sportswear
staple.51 Endorsements from the war office, as well as testimonies from
army leadership, were used to draw in male consumers. In a 1914 sup-
plement to Country Life, Burberry was already promoting its Active
Service Kit [2], offering a range of regulation clothing including khaki
uniforms, the Burberry khaki weatherproof, pea jackets, service caps,
great coats and knickerbocker breeches.52 Bold pronouncements
claimed they had clothed past armies, which lent the garments cred-
ibility with officers: In the Boer War, from General to Subaltern, all
acknowledged gratefully the lasting wear, wet resisting qualities and
healthful comfort of The Burberry.53 In the three illustrations of men in
uniform, one is shown posing in the khaki service dress, while another
mounted on a horse wears the Burberry weatherproof. While the pro-
motion avoids any signs of trench warfare, the text does advise the
reader to acquire efficient garments for arduous and trying duties.54
This is the working country and the active service kit is promoted
through the rhetoric of distinction, but the advertisement also explores
the role of clothing in promoting the health and durability of mens
bodies. On the western front the war was wet and muddy. Uniform cloth-
ing was not only used to transform men from civilians to working soldiers but was also
expected to offer protection from the most forbidding weather conditions. Fig 2.Active Service Kit,
Supplement to Country Life, 22
August 1914, p. xx, British
Hard-working clothes had a symbolic as well as a physical role in the war. Indeed, Library Board (shelfmark:
references to the practicality of the clothes for the front, their lasting and healthful P.P.7611.b)

146 Burberrys Trench Coat in First World War Britain

 qualities were evocative of the popular desire for mens very bodies to last and remain
healthy. Like many other material objects, clothes stood in for all of the fears and de-
sires of those left behind on the home front, but clothes could also conjure up the
physical presence of the body, to act as a defence against the pervasive fear of pain
and loss. Jessica Meyer argues in her exploration of soldiers wartime writing that
[t]he visual symbols of war such as uniforms could thus fail when brought into contact
with the actual experiences of war.55 While it is clear that idealized images of uni-
formly healthy men in smart uniforms were unsustainable in the face of trench war-
fare, a popular visual culture emerged that modernized images of men to fit with war
experience. Burberrys innovation of developing a breathable fabric became part of a
whole discourse, which claimed to transform and improve the wartime male body.

Just as the tailors shop survived by positioning itself as an elite masculine space,
Burberry established a strong image based on army connections and sporting stories.
Even the signature drawings for Burberrys advertisements from the period were the
work of an army man, Major George Conrad Roller (18561941) a friend of Thomas
Burberry, who served in the Boer War and the First World War.56 According to the
1920s Burberrys promotional publication, their shared interest in sport led Thomas

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Burberry to give Roller a horse called Gabardine, and as the story goes he threw in a
raincoat of that material for luck.57 According to a regimental history, both the horse
and the raincoat were taken to South Africa to fight the Boer War with the 34th
Company (Middlesex) Imperial Yeomanry.58 Rollers account of his work with Burberry
stretches back to the 1880s when Thomas Burberry suggested he do some drawings
for the firm:

Since that time I have worked almost continuously for Burberrys [sic], which I
should think is a record for any advertisement draftsman. I have only failed them
during my absence in South Africa and then again when I was in France during the
Great War. Even when I was commanding a regiment in the Reserve Cavalry in
Ireland during 1916, I still did my quota of drawings, mostly military; in fact, one
of the duties of my subaltern officers in the Newbridge Barracks was that of pos-
ing in garments which Burberrys [sic] sent to me over [sic] from London.59

Rollers work and the deployment of army and sporting references built up a consistent
and thoughtful advertising campaign to educate customers about the Burberry brand,
its values and associations. Clearly, the promotional catalogue took some liberties, but
the waterproof coat enhanced a tale that mixed the physicality of sport with the heroics
of military adventure. Burberrys artwork was central to creating and maintaining brand
identity. As early as 1904, a profile of Burberry appeared in a trade periodical that ac-
knowledged the success of the firms promotional strategy, [I]t is respected by [sic] the
aggressive advertising policy of which the firm can be justly proud, and which it has
brought to such a fine pitch of perfection.60

In 1916, The Sphere carried an advertisement that used Rollers distinctive drawings of
men in uniform, where Burberry confidently described the company as The Home of
Service Dress.61 On the left-hand side an officer wears full service dress, as is apparent
from the open-necked collar and tie, the design of the service dress jacket Sam Browne
belt and decorative cuffs62 and on the right another man wears naval kit. An assurance
that they provide Officers Complete Kits in 2 to 4 Days reveals a business making the
competing claims of exclusivity and universal availability.63 On one side of the image a
man wears the officers military kit and on the other the naval kit, each adopting poses
used in civilian menswear promotions. By emphasizing the singular wearer, the promo-
tion invited the viewer to study the details of each suit, and the distinctive military

Jane Tynan 147

bearing it afforded each wearer. Rollers drawings were all about creating movement
and atmosphere, with just enough detail for consumers to see the product. Burberrys
innovations in weatherproof cloth suited the design of coats for trench conditions, but
their advertisements went further to suggest that their products created active and
healthy bodies for the war effort. Their breathable weatherproof cloth proved ideal for
trench warfare, but a preference for dynamic images of men and their use of army and
sporting references became part of a strategy to boost business by association with the
national wartime project to make men fit for active service.

New Tailoring and the trench coat

In the pre-war Edwardian period, small tailoring establishments and gentlemans outfit-
ters predominated, but after the war a move to New Tailoring establishments bridged
the gap between the two extremes of the expensive and exclusive Savile Row tailor and
mass-production chains such as Burtons.64 During wartime, Burberry appeared to oc-
cupy this middle ground, and while its promotions used all the signifiers of gentlemanly
leisure, it also offered uniforms at affordable prices. Burberrys post-war publicity pub-

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lication made it clear that war business, recognized and exploited by the firm, linked its
innovations with past British military success:

In the South African and Continental Wars much evidence was accumulated as to
the supremacy of Burberry weatherproofs for Active Service. Between 1914 and
1918 over 500,000 military Burberry overcoats were worn by combatant officers,
in addition to vast numbers of other of Burberrys [sic] exclusive models.65

The popularity of weatherproofed coats began with the nineteenth-century appetite

for sport and travel. During wartime, many firms advanced the military potential of
their clothing goods, while others boasted that their military tailoring tradition gave
them an insight into the science of specialist clothing for outdoor pursuits. Burberry,
however, explicitly used the distinctive conditions of the western theatre of war to
make the transition from civilian elite sportswear to army clothing. Thus, the firm de-
scribed a new kind of approach to outerwear suitable for wet and muddy conditions.
Waterproof outerwear was recommended for soldiers going to the western front, but
no trench coat appears in the war office publication that regulated military uniform for
officers. One entry refers to a Waterproof Cape:

Single breasted Inverness, whole back with centre slit, hole and button; five bone
buttons down the front; cape, four bone buttons; cross pockets patched on inside
with flaps; sword slit at left side; three-inch turn down collar with detachable tab;
two long body straps, crossing over chest and fastening with hole and button at
waist behind; two short straps with holes and buttons to support garment when
rolled on shoulder; arm slings sewn down in cape; leg slings to button inside skirts
in front.66

The provision of this garment was not compulsory, and was not obligatory in any order
of dress, but neither was it intended that the sealed patterns be rigidly followed for
the material nor for the proofing process.67 The Burberry Weatherproof promoted
during wartime was likely to be a version of this regulation garment. In fact, what be-
came known as the trench coat appears to have combined the features of this cape
and the regulation greatcoat designed for British officers. Burberrys achievement in
the war period was to incorporate its traditional leisure wear with war office require-
ments and in some cases to perfect or re-design regulation dress for trench
conditions.

148 Burberrys Trench Coat in First World War Britain

 Later the trench coat became a design classic, but its origins lay in the coats that were
developed to protect against weather and mud conditions of the trenches during the
First World War. Fighting conditions on the western front led to the adaptation of the
coat for the trenches, and its historic association with the conflict.68 Large pockets
could accommodate maps and keep them dry, while cleverly placed flaps and vents
dealt with odour.69 Nonetheless, Burberry was not the only company making trench
coats during wartime. Aquascutum of Regent Street, London, placed a promotion in
The Sphere in November 1915, which made specific reference to the western theatre
of war by using an extract from an officers letter locating him Somewhere in
Flanders.70 It read, [t]he trenches were very soon over the boot top in mud and water.
However, with the aid of a pair of good rubber-top boots and my Aquascutum, I was
able to keep perfectly dry.71 Another advertisement on the front page of The Daily
Mail for the Zambrene drenchproof targeted both officers and civilians to promote
their rubberless raincoat. This promotion used drawings of officers at the front under
hard rain and extracts from letters to endorse its protection against snow, wind or
drenching rain.72 Testimonies from soldiers gave the impression that war experience
was informing the design of army clothing, that manufacturers of waterproof coats
were responsive to soldiers needs on the ground, [t]riple-triple proof is the latest sci-

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entific advancement in rubberless proofing.73 The various manufacturers of water-
proof coats competing for war business were keen to convince consumers that they
had an intimate knowledge of trench conditions, but they also sought to demonstrate
how they could respond with the latest scientific solutions.

The Blizzardeen referred to a range of weatherproof garments sold by Gerrish Ames

and Simpkins of London, including the Trench, which can be found in an advertise-
ment of a belted, knee-length and double-breasted coat worn by an army officer.74
Trench coats were also the subject of a 1916 article in The Tailor and Cutter, which illus-
trated three of the most popular types. The first two were a belted fly-front raglan style,
and a fly-front raglan style with flap pockets and close-fitting sleeve.75 The third was
described as perhaps the most stylish of the three garments:

It is made double-breast[ed] with fairly low-rolling lapel, so that it may be fastened

up to the throat if desired. It is very roomy, and brought close to the waist by
means of a belt. The sleeve is the three-piece Raglan type cut very wide, and
brought close to the wrist by means of a band. All these coats are made up from
a kind of gabardine; they are waterproofed, and sometimes lined throughout with
fleece lining.76

This example more closely resembles what has become known as the trench coat, but
during the war many coats used this name, in response to army and civilian demand for
an outdoor weatherproof topcoat. The evidence suggests that the trench coat was not
a regulation garment but emerged as a design that many firms developed by adapting
the best features from outdoor garments recommended for British officers.

Burberry Trench-Warm: sport, adventure and war

Sports-inspired clothing was a key theme in late-nineteenth century developments in
mass-produced clothing, which reflected a middle-class modernizing of the male body.77
In clothing promotions, themes of hygiene and sport reflected middle-class ideals about
healthy and improving outdoor pastimes. By incorporating these ideals into their adver-
tising campaigns, Burberry was keen to capture this market. During wartime, advertise-
ments might have taken on a harder edge, but sport and outdoor themes continued to
sell army clothing. In 1916, The Sphere carried an advertisement for the Burberry

Jane Tynan 149

Trench-Warm declaring it scientifically designed78 by combining three topcoats, fur-
ther enhanced by additions including the cap, cover and cape, gabardine gloves and
trench boots [3]. A service cap and gun draw the viewers attention to the soldier
standing up to his ankles in water in full weatherproof gear in the countryside. The
caption draws attention to the distinctive weatherproof material used, claiming that
they supplied Sir Ernest Shackleton, Captain Scott and Captain Amundsen on their
expeditions to the South Pole, as their protection against the intense cold of those in-
hospitable regions.79 A garment for officers on outdoor duty, the Trench-Warm com-
bined three weatherproof topcoats and a British-Warm coat. By declaring the trench
outfit scientifically designed, the advertisement presented the coat as a new tech-
nology for bodies enduring the cold and wet of the trenches. The promise of scientific

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Fig 3.Burberry Trench-Warm,
The Sphere, 11 November 1916,
p. x, British Library Board
(shelfmark: LD48 NPL)

150 Burberrys Trench Coat in First World War Britain

 innovation may have appealed to the consumers desire for practical and rational cloth-
ing, and although it may have been a concession to wartime economy, this rhetoric
also appealed to the middle-class interest in improving outdoor activities. Arguably, the
coat became part of an optimistic wartime project of improvement and transformation.
Indeed, the text makes it clear that the wrap-coat could be used for wear in dug-outs
or when off duty suggesting that the firm was keen to capture civilian as well as army
interest.80 This coat resembles the Waterproof Cape regulation pattern for officers but
offers a more sophisticated system that combines hygienic ventilation with weather-
proofing to keep the body dry. While Burberry was in the business of war supply, the firm
was also aware of the appeal of this kind of outdoor leisure wear for the civilian consumer.

Burberrys historical narrative exploited cultural links between sport, adventure and
war. The suitability of clothing for weather conditions in the trenches was an official
concern, raised in Parliament in February 1915 when there was a question about
whether any of the troops of the Expeditionary Force are still required to stand in
water in the trenches without being provided with waterproof stockings or trench
waders and oilskin coats.81 Weather conditions were often very difficult on the
western front, as one soldiers account conveys: Next morning, in torrential rain,

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burdened with trench impedimenta under waterproof capes, the Battalion trudged
wearily out of camp in Indian file, along roads ankle-deep in slush and congested with
traffic of all kinds.82 Indeed, another promotion for the Trench-Warm appears to re-
spond by warning prospective customers that When facing the Hun or facing the
Weather, the most efficient and comfortable Safeguard is a Burberry Trench-Warm.83
To update the image of the gentleman in a Burberry coat, this advertisement makes
compelling parallels between the elements and the forces of the enemy. As this pro-
motion conveys, wartime preoccupations re-fashioned images of gentlemanly leisure,
to foreground action and combat. Indeed, the urgency and immediacy of the mes-
sage appears to be reflected in the production process itself, when Burberry offers
uniforms for officers under orders that are ready to put on.84 By focusing on the
physicality of military work, the promotion presented weatherproof clothing as a sci-
entific solution to the widely known problems for men enduring trench conditions.

Burberrys modernized man was prepared; in this image he stares out at the viewer,
clutching his gun ready for all emergencies.85 The text for the advertisement could
be describing this modern presentation of the male body when it declares that the
Trench-Warm is both practical in every detail yet smart and soldierlike in appear-
ance.86 Indeed, it goes on to say that the Weatherproof and the British-Warm com-
bine to form the finest Trench-Coat available. A staunch, double-breasted safeguard
that withstands a steady downpour or blizzard and engenders healthful warmth.87
This 1917 promotion echoes the visual and textual language of the Thresher and
Glenny promotion from the same year. By combining the rhetoric of innovative mate-
rials, practical details and hygienic design, these firms claimed to protect soldiers from
what people at home knew were the forbidding conditions on the western front.

Burberrys trench coat and making history

Burberrys promotional rhetoric captured lifestyle changes but also linked the firms de-
sign and manufacturing innovations with national concerns. Using the word trench
lent prestige to any promotion for waterproof coats that offered a practical and manly
garment developed for military purposes. Various trench coats were promoted during
the First World War from the Durward trench coat by Kenneth Durward of Conduit
Street in London,88 a traditional tailoring concern, to Moseley trench capes from David

Jane Tynan 151

Moseley and Sons in Manchester, whose main business was tyre making.89 It was
Burberry, however, which managed to reconcile these polar opposites of science and
craft by conceiving leisure wear through the regenerative potential of work. Burberry
might have drawn on an image of traditional elite masculinity but its promotions made
active service appear both a practical and an aspirational lifestyle.

A growing consumer culture in the early twentieth century meant that advertising
messages showed more sophistication and mobility, while the economies of wartime
encouraged advertising artists and copywriters to link menswear campaigns with the
wider propaganda machine.90 Wearing anything from socks to overcoats could be
constructed as active service. As the war progressed, advertising strategies for mens
clothing ceased to rely exclusively on images of leisure but began to rhetorically value
signs of work. To appeal to middle-class men whose professional and social mobility
were negotiated through advertising messages, leisure was assimilated through a
middle-class culture of healthy citizenship and idealized athleticism.91 Burberrys visual
style developed along these lines. As David Kuchta observes of changing images of
fashionable masculinities, the figure of the gentleman was modernized, to suggest
that character could be developed through good work.92 Clearly, the new army officer

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was symptomatic of this new social mobility, and while many of these men did not
have access to traditional tailoring, wartime clothing promotions suggested that this
type of consumer may have valued images that combined work and leisure. If mens
bodies became an index of character, their clothing displayed the simplicity and dur-
ability of a class for whom duty meant balancing the roles of citizen and worker.

Claiming a stake in British history, the Burberry label encouraged links with a glorious mili-
tary past, and appropriated the countryside to create the myth of a clothing manufacturer
involved in national historical conquests. In its wartime promotional strategies, Burberrys
use of landscape made its products appear part of an idealized past, but the firm was also
aware of the potential of the working country to suggest a more athletic version of mas-
culinity. The Tielocken, one of the most successful Burberry coats associated with the war,
was a flexible garment without buttons, easy to adjust once weather conditions changed,
as is clear from an advertisement in The Bystander [4].93 Patented in 1912, the Tielocken
was a double-breasted coat with an innovative fastening system. An illustration adopted a
stylistic image of an officer wearing the coat, belted at the waist with shoulder epaulettes.
An abridgement to the original design appeared in January 1914, indicating it was suffi-
ciently innovative to require a patent.94 Burberry summed up the value of the garment
with the words SecurityComfortDistinction emblazoned across the top of the pro-
motion. This checklist of practical and aesthetic concerns reveals a firm aware of shifting
class identities, which might account for its reluctance to be explicit about class. The coat
is workmanlike in every detail yet distinguished in design, as the garment claimed to
satisfy the demands of outdoor work while retaining the aesthetics of leisure.95 In this way,
while the Tielocken was a garment designed for trench warfare, it was also stylish enough
to maintain Burberrys reputation for creating smart outfits for gentlemen. If Burberrys
promotions were keen to proclaim the firms historic involvement in sportswear supply,
they were equally concerned with maintaining its reputation for traditional tailoring.

A Burberry weatherproof may have been a practical garment but this promotion associ-
ated the coat with men who liked hunting and fishing, and suggested that the ideal
consumers of Burberrys had ownership over the countryside. Aware that the rise of
amateur sports brought in new business, Burberry incorporated the aesthetic ideals of
gentlemanliness into middle-class choices. By drawing on the visual style of the
gentleman amateur, a company such as Burberry could re-fashion middle-class men by

152 Burberrys Trench Coat in First World War Britain

Fig 4.The Tielocken, The
Bystander, 25 July 1917, p. 195,
British Library Board
(shelfmark: ZC.9.560)

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offering practical, mass-produced clothing, which bore the marks of sporting leisure.
Burberry capitalized on urbanrural divisions, but its idealization of the countryside also
had class implications. Sport and leisure pursuits were associated with the country
gentleman, but these preoccupations were far removed from the modern technologies
that characterized the war on the western front. Wartime was changing perceptions of
military masculinities, which modernized fashionable images of civilian men to incorp-
orate the cultural values associated with work and leisure.

During the war, material goods invested soldiers bodies with the mythical power of science
and technology. Clothing became part of that discourse. Companies strove to retain their
link with tradition; they also sought an advertising language that communicated the mod-
ernity of scientific innovation and the technologies of warfare. This was a complex under-
taking. To attract mens attention, army clothing was promoted through the language of
wartime economy while care was taken not to dispense with traditional images of luxury.
The virtue of the past lay in rigid class certainties, yet wartime ushered in new masculine
identities formed through amateur sports and voluntary groups. Furthermore, during the
war mass production no longer confined uniform production to official army clothing fac-
tories, but the trade expanded owing to the lucrative nature of khaki contracts. Demands
for camouflage and increased uniformity altered the traditional distinctions that drove the
trade in military uniform, while the image of the civilian body became more suited to dis-
courses of mobilization. Uniform design and promotion reflected the civilian make-up of the
army. Propagandist messages were shaped by the commonality of purpose between state
and civil society, leading many companies to adopt the language of national pride in their
wartime advertising. What the private sector lost to the war effort, it gained by capitalizing
on war requirements, the best source of business in the lean wartime period.

When British army officers went about procuring their uniform to war office specifica-
tion, they reinterpreted a traditional military liberty through the discourse of consumer
choice. Many officers relied on various kinds of retailers to supply them with regulation

Jane Tynan 153

issue, despite the fact that their position afforded them the traditional freedom to make
a visit to their tailor. Volunteer enlistment and new methods of officer recruitment
meant that most British officers would have to find an affordable uniform, but promo-
tions continued to rely upon the symbolic power of tailoring to sell mens clothing.

Conclusions
Burberrys advertising campaigns sold mens clothing by appropriating the values of the
British countryside, and while these promotions explored class, they were not trans-
parent about who their customers might be. Military uniform marked class differences,
but during wartime companies such as Burberry were not prepared to be too explicit
about social class in their menswear promotions. Advertisements for waterproof coats
were driven by these contradictions. By incorporating both work and leisure, they cre-
ated a radical visual language to promote the firms innovative clothing. Without the
corrective of work, images of leisure might have missed the point of trench warfare.
Menswear promotions continued to use clothing to express the masculinity of military
ownership over land but made concessions to social changes inside and outside the

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army. The realities of trench warfare affected advertising campaigns when Thresher
and Glennys advertisement proclaimedas if it were a revelationthat war is work.
Whether invoking the pleasures of the country estate or the miseries of the trench, the
countryside offered common ground for advertisers and propagandists.

British wartime promotions for army clothing created images of the male body that com-
bined new concepts of war work with established ideas about outdoor leisure. In an army
that encouraged increased social mobility, uniform clothing took on a transformative role.
Wartime economy may have driven advertisers to use the visual language of utility to sell
clothing, but these promotions did not focus exclusively on soldiers. They also reached
civilians. Burberrys approach to menswear advertising was less likely to idealize the male
body through the traditional symbols of class. Instead, the war brought with it changed
social conditions and the push to modernize their whole aesthetic. Burberrys image of
the outdoor man in a trench coata civilian in uniformnot only sold products during
wartime but also made the garment an enduring design classic. After the war, the trench
coat became a popular fashion item worn by women and men, appearing regularly in
film and popular culture throughout the twentieth century.96 Wartime social changes
made the trench coat a symbol for a new kind of body that traversed tradition and mod-
ernity, incorporated military and civilian, and combined work and leisure.

Jane Tynan
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London
E-mail: j.tynan@csm.arts.ac.uk

If you have any comments to make in relation to this article, please go to the journal
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site for sending e-mail responses to the editorial board and other readers.

Notes
1 W. D. F. Vincent, Cutters Practical Guide to the Cutting and
Making of All kinds of British Military Uniforms, John
Williamson Co., London, c.191418, p. 2.
2 Quintin Colville, Jack Tar and the Gentleman Officer: The
Role of Uniform in Shaping the Class-and Gender-Related
Identities of British Naval Personnel, 19301939, Transactions
of the RHS, vol. 13, 2003, p. 111.
3 David Cannadine, Class in Britain, Yale University Press, New
Haven, 1998, p. 22.
4 Laura Ugolini, Men and Menswear: Sartorial Consumption in
Britain 1880-1939, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2007, pp. 7098.

154 Burberrys Trench Coat in First World War Britain

 5 Joanna Bourke, Dismembering the Male: Mens Bodies,
Britain and the Great War, Reaktion, London, 1999.
6 A Working War Coat, The Sphere, 26 May 1917, p. viii.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Dress Regulations for the Army, HMSO, Imperial War
Museum, 1911, p. 9.
10 T. H. Holding, Uniforms of the British Army Navy and Court,
British Library, 1894, p. 5.
11 British Military Service Dress Uniforms, The Tailor and
Cutter, 18 November 1915, p. 834.
12 C. B. Otley, The Social Origins of British Army Officers,
Sociological Review, 1970, p. 215.
13 Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Faber
and Faber, London, 1937, p. 283.
14 Edward Spiers, The Army and Society 18151914, Longman,
London, 1980, pp. 134.
15 Gary D. Sheffield, Leadership in the Trenches: Officer-Man
Relations, Morale and Discipline in the British Army in the Era
of the First World War, Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2000, p. 2.
16 Spiers, op. cit., pp. 134.
17 Sheffield, op. cit., p. 29; Sheffield draws on the work of J. M.
Winter, The Great War and the British People, MacMillan,
London, 1987, to argue that larger numbers of officers were
commissioned during the First World War from non-traditional
social classes than in any previous war. High casualties and
heavy losses amongst junior officers forced the army to search
for officer material from beyond its traditional sources, to sup-
ply leadership for a mass army between 1914 and 1918.
18 Martin Petter, Temporary Gentlemen in the Aftermath of
the Great War: Rank, Status and the Ex-Officer Problem, The
Historical Journal, vol. 37, March 1994, pp. 12752; this art-
icle describes the make-up of the British officer corps in the
First World War and, while more than half were middle class,
the manual working class made up around fifteen to twenty
per cent, leaving just a quarter from the public-school-edu-
cated landed and professional elite.
19 Keith Simpson, The Officers in A Nation in Arms: A Social
Study of the British Army in the First World War, Ian F. W.
Beckett & Keith Simpson (eds), Manchester University Press,
Manchester, 1985, p. 70.
20 Clive Hughes, The New Armies, in A Nation in Arms, op. cit.,
1985, p. 100; the so-called new army or Kitcheners armies
were new units raised to meet the demand for the large
numbers of men required during the first part of the First
World War. The recruitment of the new army was Lord
Kitcheners plan to quickly expand the British armed forces,
which suffered from relatively small numbers in comparison
with Britains allies and enemies. The new army served overseas
and relied upon voluntary enlistment until conscription was in-
troduced in 1916.
Jane Tynan
21 John M. Bourne, The British Working Man in Arms in
Facing Armageddon: The First World War Experience, Hugh
Cecil & Peter Liddle (eds), Pen and Sword, Barnsley, 1996, p. 338.
22 Christopher Breward, The Hidden Consumer: Masculinities,
Fashion and City Life 1860-1914, Manchester University
Press, Manchester, 1999, pp. 24653.
23 Sassoon, op. cit., p. 283.
24 Laura Ugolini, Ready-to-Wear or Made to Measure?
Consumer Choice in the British Menswear Trade, 1900
1939, Textile History, vol. 34, 2003, p. 198.
25 Rachel Woodward, Its a Mans Life!: Soldiers, Masculinity
and the Countryside, Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal
of Feminist Geography, vol. 5, 1998, p. 277.
26 Your Countrys Call, PST 11768, Imperial War Museum.
27 Ibid.
28 Foxs F. I. P. Puttees, The Sphere, 17 July 1915, p. 52; Puttees
were strips of cloth worn with ankle boots by British soldiers in
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the First World War. Wound around the lower part of the leg
like a bandage, these lengths of wool serge replaced tall leather
boots and proved an economical form of protection and sup-
port. There were different types, but officers could privately pur-
chase better quality puttees. Originating in nineteenth-century
India, military puttees became a characteristic part of the khaki
uniform worn by the British army during the First World War.
29 Dress Regulations for the Army, op. cit., p. 10.
30 Thornstein Veblen, Theory of the Leisure Class, Dover,
London, 1994 [first pub. 1899].
31 Chris Rojek, Decentring Leisure: Rethinking Leisure Theory,
Sage, London, 1995; John Clarke & Chas Critcher, The Devil
Makes Work: Leisure in Capitalist Britain, MacMillan,
Basingstoke, 1985.
32 Joseph Bristow, Empire Boys: Adventures in a Mans World,
Harper Collins, London, 1991.
33 Caroline Dakers, The Countryside at War 191418, Constable,
London, 1987, p. 77.
34 Raymond Williams, The Country and the City, Howarth,
London, 1985.
35 Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory, Oxford
University Press, Oxford, 1975, p. 235.
36 Alun Howkins, The Discovery of Rural England in
Englishness: Politics and Culture 1880-1920, Robert Coles &
Philip Dodd (eds), Croom Helm, London, 1986, pp. 6288.
37 John Keegan, Regimental Ideology in War, Economy and
the Military Mind, Geoffrey Best & Andrew Wheatcroft (eds),
Croom Helm, London, 1976, pp. 78.
38 Williams, op. cit., p. 302.
39 A Working War Coat, op. cit.
40 Ibid.
41 Graham Dawson, Soldier Heroes, Routledge, London, 1994,
pp. 23358.
155
 42 J. D. Campbell, Training for Sport is Training for War:
Sport and the Transformation of the British Army, 1860
1914, The International Journal of the History of Sport, vol.
17, 2000, pp. 2158.
43 Sources show that the company was referred to as Burberrys
or Burberrys before and during the First World War.
However, for consistency, throughout the article the compa-
nys current name Burberry is used.
44 The Burberry, Punch, Burberry Archive, 3 June 1914, p. ix.
45 Ibid.
46 Ibid.
47 Arlesa J. Shephard, Waterproof Dress: An Exploration of
Development and Design from 1880 through 1895, unpub-
lished Ph.D. thesis, University of Missouri-Columbia, 2009,
pp. 1213.
48 The Times, 9 January 1902.
49 Burberry Catalogue, c.1915, Burberry Archive.
50 The Burberry, op. cit.
51 Open Spaces, author unknown, Burberry Archive, Burberrys
Ltd., London, 1928, p. 170.
52 Active Service Kit, Supplement to Country Life, Burberry
Archive, 22 August 1914, p. xx.
53 Ibid.
54 Ibid.
55 Jessica Meyer, Men of War: Masculinity and the First World War
in Britain, Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke, 2009, p. 149.
56 Tadley and District Society Project News, issue 8, June 2005,
pp. 13.
57 Open Spaces, op. cit., p. 245.
58 William Corner, The Story of the 34th Company (Middlesex)
Imperial Yeomanry from the Point of View of Private no.
6243, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1902.
59 Open Spaces, op. cit., pp. 146245.
60 Burberrys Mens Wear, EMAP Archive, London College of
Fashion, 4 June 1904, p. 359.
61 Naval and Military Kit, The Sphere, 29 April 1916, p. i.
62 Dress Regulations for the Army, op. cit., pp. 59.
63 Naval and Military Kit, op. cit.
64 Catherine Horwood, Keeping Up Appearances: Fashion and
Class between the Wars, Sutton Publishing, Gloucestershire,
2005, p. 26.
65 Open Spaces, op. cit., p. 40.
66 Dress Regulations for the Army, op. cit., p. 11.
67 Ibid.
68 Penelope Byrde, The Male Image: Mens Fashions in England
13001970, Batsford, London, 1979, pp. 1379.
156
69 Deyan Sudjic, The Importance of Being Burberry, Cult
Objects, Paladin, London, 1985, p. 712.
70 Aquascutum Trench Coat, The Sphere, 6 November 1915, p. v.
71 Ibid.
72 The Zambrene Drenchproof, The Daily Mail, 11 February
1915, p. 1.
73 Ibid.
74 Blizzardeen, Mens Wear, 25 August 1917, p. i (supplement).
75 Trench Coats, The Tailor and Cutter, 1 June 1916, p. 409.
76 Ibid.
77 Brent Shannon, The Cut of His Coat, Men, Dress and
Consumer Culture in Britain, 18601914, Ohio University
Press, Ohio, 2006, p. 190.
78 Burberry Trench-Warm, The Sphere, 11 November 1916, p. x.
79 Ibid.
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80 Ibid.
81 Provision of Trench Waders and Oilskin Coats, Parliamentary
Debates, British Library, 25 February 1915, [70] 384 .
82 Sidney Rogerson, Twelve Days on the Somme: A Memoir of
the Trenches, 1916, Greenhill Books, London, 2006, p. 9.
83 Ready for All Emergencies, Burberry Trench-Warm, The
Sphere, 15 September 1917, p. vii.
84 Ibid.
85 Ibid.
86 Ibid.
87 Ibid.
88 Kenneth Durward, The Sphere, 10 March 1917, p. xiii.
89 Storm-proof Capes, The Daily Mail, 4 February 1915, p. 6.
90 Paul Jobling, Man Appeal: Advertising, Modernism and
Menswear, Berg, Oxford, 2005, p. 37.
91 Peter Bailey, The Politics and Poetics of Modern British
Leisure, Rethinking History, vol. 3, 1999, p. 134.
92 David Kuchta, The Three-Piece Suit and Modern Masculinity:
England, 15501850, University of California Press, Berkeley,
2002, pp. 16972.
93 The Tielocken, The Bystander, 25 July 1917, p. 195.
94 Coats and Jackets, Burberry, T., No. 21, 716, The Illustrated
Official Journal (Patents), 14 January 1914, p. 4828.
95 The Tielocken, op. cit., p. 195.
96 The trench coat appeared in fashion and cinema throughout
the twentieth century, but particularly since the Second
World War. Notable appearances of the trench coat were
Humphrey Bogarts Rick Blaine in Casablanca (1942) and
Audrey Hepburns Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffanys
(1961). In fashion, the trench coat is regularly revitalized for
the catwalk but is also considered a design classic.
Burberrys Trench Coat in First World War Britain