The Impossible Question. Our Favourite Piece of British Design. Charlie.

The Barbour Jacket.

This is, of course, the impossible question. But I have been thinking about Barbour a lot because I recently bought a fantastic new waxed jacket which I have worn every day for three weeks. It’s part of a collaboration with Japanese brand Flower Mountain and has orange corduroy trim on the sleeves. It’s great and so this week I nominate this storied brand. My choice will no doubt change next week, but Barbour will always be right up there.

This new one is my third, I have a brilliant beaten-up Margaret Howell collaboration version from around a decade ago, and a thin and very torn one that’s probably 35 years old. Both remain amongst my most treasured pieces of kit.

The business was born in the 1890s in South Shields as an importer of waxed cotton. Founded by John Barbour from Galloway, one of the family still chairs the board. What I love about it is that a good Barbour jacket does what it should do incredibly well and with absolutely no fuss, and yet is perfectly, timelessly stylish. I wore one as a child and I have worn one every decade since. I am an evangelist.

The sadness is that my new one isn’t made in Britain, but in Bulgaria, which is a great shame, though I suppose that’s what I should expect of something that cost me £350. And the rest of the Barbour range of clothes -and indeed their standalone shops- leave me absolutely cold. But the original product, the epicenter, is an unbeatable bit of kit.