Go with the flow, G. They're a classic thing. I've owned many great single breasted raincoats from Burberrys, Aquascutum and Grenfell but while I've never worn a trench I can appreciate them. I think they look better on women than on men in the main though: must be the belted waist thing.

My personal black beast is the three-quarter length or shortie raincoat. Mean and impractical. The badge of a scoundrel.

Spring /Summer 1954 Stacey.

Burberrys outerwear was really special in those days, I think. Even by the time I was wearing the coats (mid-80s) the stuff was, while still well made, slightly fusty. The Burberrys of the immediate postwar period had far more élan, somehow.

I wonder if anyone can comment on how those coats would be priced in today's currency.

I 'ad a Trench from Petticoat Lane - Polish it was. I was thinking of Dexter Gordon at the time.

http://www.popsike.com/pix/20081203/310105828546.jpg

Then I graduated to the fly front mac - Less is more!

Last edited by Russell_Street (2009-11-11 04:09:12)

I'll take a mac over a trencoat any day of the week - though I've always loved that picture of Dexter (and indeed the album!). I've got a Baracuta raglan sleeved full length one in a sort of British khaki - 60's vintage I think (£10 - dont think it was ever worn) which is very nice. But my favourite is an ivory Grenfell - gorgeous it is - sold to me by John Simons during a heat wave! I'd only gone in to buy a pair of black weejuns........ it caught my eye just as I was leaving the shop - "It might not be here next time you come in" he said as I ummed and ahhed. Sold! He knows when you need to own something that man.

I think I see the difficulty.  The trenchcoat is more 'style' perhaps than purist Ivy.  No problem there so long as you're in tune with the mix.  Bogart and Mitchum are still major players for some - maybe more so than McQueen and Newman.  It's that black and white film noir look.  I prefer the pre-war French cinema - Jean Gabin etc.  The association could be with padded shoulders and two-tone shoes, fatter ties and a slouch hat.  More Ronnie Scott and Dankworth than east coast/west coast cool?  The fly-fronted, worn or folded over the arm, is terrific: Cecil Gee, Soho modernist.  Here we find the 'blurring' that gives Ivy in London an edgy, eclectic feel.  I like to call it 'layering'.  The mind retains layers of information that inform the body, hopefully ensuring a 'correct' look.  The lines, the colouring - the 'less is more' ethos.  Too many buckles and rings can detract.

I'd still like a 21, though.

Bump.  E might care to look this over.

I wish I still had my £1 bargain from all those years ago.  Alas, I grew too fat.

Thanks for posting those pics Natural Sole Brother. I have been wanting a raincoat like that, but being shorter I am a little self conscious. There is this very traditional older man (in his eighties) that works in a building that I used to work in and seeing him wear his Burberry trench almost daily from fall to spring convinced me of their merit.