By a strange coincidence (I sometimes think I am in a movie) I sat in the pub next to a bloke wearing a maroon Harrington yesterday. He is 15 years younger than me so might have been a second wave mod. I definitely wouldn't buy one now
I have a maroon Harrington. It gets more use than the pensioner beige one. I also have a red one.
I wore the beige Keydge Ivy jacket during the hot weather. Safari jacket also got some wear.
I appreciate the silhouette provided by a Harrington jacket, smart but casual, slightly sporty and relaxed. I fall in and out of love with them, I get keen and start wearing mine, I do like to wear one over a plain polo shirt, then the old lingering associations inexorably surface to spoil everything. To wit on Saturday I was out on my bicycle and a dozen or so blokes on old scooters came past, evidently out on a club run. At least half of them were wearing Baracuta (or copies of) Harringtons and I thought ‘mmm not for me’.
I saw a chap wearing one when we were out the other night, he was in his thirties and had long’ish hair, he wasn’t rocking some sort of Mod revival look, I can’t remember what else he had on but he was smart and had made some effort to look good. But then one noticed that unmistakable flash of Stewart tartan in the visible part of the lining which somehow took the edge off it. I’ve got a couple of Grenfell Harringtons and a Burberry one and each case the lining check is much more subdued and thereby easier to wear.
I wore them: Baracuta, McGregor Drizzler and Anti-Freeze, London Fog. Just after Christmas I bought a USA-made all-cotton King Louie in 'natural' (beige-ish - fawn?) I wore it out once with Levis and penny loafers and decided it was a look I could no longer pull off. Too much time had gone by. I'd also become addicted to raincoats: Burberrys', Brooks, Aquascutum and other, slightly 'toffier' outerwear.
To be frank, even years ago, I often struggled with zips. And I was forgetting the ownership of Peters and Catalina circa 2009. Same damn problem, even though they did not quite have the look of a Harrington.
Chap in the local 'vintage' shop told me Baracuta own the name 'Harrington'. Is this the case?
I've four or five Baracuta's and a JS Grenfell in various colours and cloths. Rarely wear any of them now. Wore the JS version when I met with Woof in London recently, first outing for it in about four years and it stayed in the hotel room for the rest of the trip, mind you, the weather was superb that weekend.
They could have been - and probably should have been - a semi-smart, semi-sharp, verging on the respectable jacket for the discerning gent of all ages. But, at least in the UK and Europe, they turned into something else. The image changed from Ike or Bob Hope practising their golf swing to Steve McQueen looking mildly yobbish to skinheads looking overtly aggressive. That kind of garment becomes difficult to rescue and rehabilitate - much like Fred Perry and Lacoste polo shirts.
How to keep the appearance of 'affluence' quiet and relatively modest.
Years ago I knew people who wore Barbour jackets (man and wife) with the little metal badges on, so that anyone in doubt could peer closely and say 'My goodness, that's a Barbour you're wearing, you must be affluent/good-looking/capable of shagging your wife five times a night/passing your exams without revising/whatever...' Knowing nods, winks and chuckles all round.
I had a Grenfell jacket (not waxed) and removed the little cloth tag with a razor blade.
I now favour a battered 'Bronte', padded inside (thickly) and the colour of a heap of dog mess.
No badge, no logo, no affiliations, nothing. A passing goatherd might take note.
North Face was always dubious. Even more so now.
Puffer jackets. Doesn't Putin wear one?
Bollocks to Barbour, though. It's moved well down market.
I would suggest, too, that the Harrington jacket, like the button-down, the polo shirt, chinos and any number of Ivy/Prep/Trad items has been absorbed into the mainstream to such an extent the significance has been entirely obscured.
I was stood in line behind a guy - around my own age - last week. He was wearing some kind of knitted garment, khaki shorts, no socks, deck shoes. Superficially, he looked okay. Looking closer, he didn't, he looked like a man of my own age who hadn't given a huge amount of thought to the way he looked.
There are not many days when I'll fail to see some fat chappie wearing a black (always black) Harrington-style jacket, often with cheap jeans and plastic-looking trainers.
There have to be alternatives.
I fear God is playing tricks on me. Travelling on the bus this morning I spotted another maroon Harington, worn by a young cool looking fella walking down the street . On the bus were two old geezers wearing the beige version and not looking good. Is the Harrington making a comeback or is it just a suitable jacket for the drizzly weather?
I had an olive green chore jacket on. I might have to dig out one of my harringtons.
God will really be up to no good when He begins dressing up old geezers (and young geezers) in seersucker jackets, white bucks, navy knitted ties, 'Guaranteed-To-Bleed Madras', cordovan wingtips and embroidered velvet slippers as referenced by one R.Press.
I am not making this up but this afternoon someone else wearing a maroon Harrington walked into the pub. God is indeed messing with my mind as I'm seeing these Harrington's everywhere.
On a side note I had a pair of American longwings on for the first time in ages.I looked affluent.
I put metal badges on my Keydge jacket. Not the maker’s name - beer and football related.
I am after a Wetherspoons metal badge.
Spotted this a.m. Black 'arrington. Wearer had greying beard, greying man-bun, specs. Was looking at his 'phone whilst munching on an apple - quite an achievement for any male in this neck of the woods: the Derbyshire equivalent of Leonardo Da Vinci.
Wore my beige Harrington, bought in Covent garden late 80s, for my daily pub visit. Bloke wearing Black Harrington on the next table. He was in a different league to me.
I looked affluent.