how to wear a barbour waxed jacket

[dandy1]

looking for some help with what to wear with a green barbour beaufort waxed jacket. its such an iconic & strong piece that wondering how to pair it with other items without it clashing due to its image .. country set, 1980s yuppy look and so on ...

seen a lot of guys in the City wearing pinstripe suits, black oxford shoes with one of these worn on top which I think works ... any other ideas? the fact its quite a heavy jacket is making me wonder if you need to wear it with more chunky rounded shoes .. any thoughts?

dandy/

 

[williamson]



... what to wear with a green barbour beaufort waxed jacket...seen a lot of guys in the City wearing pinstripe suits, black oxford shoes with one of these worn on top which I think works ...

I'm sorry, but I don't think this does work - Barbour jacket and city suit are an incongruous pair (even though they have been worn by Ministers of Agriculture). Don't mix modes and messages. Wear a full-length overcoat or raincoat over a suit - you won't then get your trousers wet in rain. Fortunately, we've moved on from the eighties/yuppy era.
With respect to shoes, I have to say that they interest me very little - from another posting by you, you seem to be very fussy indeed about their shape.

 

[GBR]

Wear it when YOU think it right and with what you think for YOU. Clearly some like to wear them in the city, others not others will like to wear this others, that. None are right, none are wrong.

 

[Needsmoreshoes]

The most common look I've seen it mixed with is a pair of chinos or cords, a blue/white striped banker shirt and driving loafers. This look is sported by loads of guys around my uni campus. I'm not a fan but particularly at the experimental student stage in life I do think each to his own.

That said I do have a friend who has a wonderful vintage one that's hugely beaten up, he pairs it brilliantly well with crisp raw denim and chunky wingtips - it contrasts quite nicely with the denim but feels at home enough with the wingtips to not seem out of place.

Here's a styleblogger post - http://www.thestyleblogger.com/6592/how-to-wear-man-jewelry-featuring-philip-crangi-part-ii/ - with Philip Crangi sporting a vintage Barbour for some inspiration (Frankly this look makes me want to go with the hunting influence and grind buckshot into my eyes but hey-ho it's still inspiration)

 

[Bounder]



Wear it when YOU think it right and with what you think for YOU. Clearly some like to wear them in the city, others not others will like to wear this others, that. None are right, none are wrong.

Piffle. What kind of talk is that? Are you some sort of anarchist or something?

seen a lot of guys in the City wearing pinstripe suits, black oxford shoes with one of these worn on top which I think works ... any other ideas? the fact its quite a heavy jacket is making me wonder if you need to wear it with more chunky rounded shoes .. any thoughts?/  

First, kind of almost definitionaly, you can't really wear a jacket over a jacket. So you really need some sort of overcoat or trench coat.

Anyway, a waxed jacket over a city suit doesn't really work any more than hiking boots and a suit would work and for much the same reason. But this isn't to say that you can't wear a waxed jacket in the city. For example, chukka boots, jeans/moleskins and a striped/checked shirt would work perfectly with a waxed jacket, especially on Saturday morning at the farmer's market. It's really all about context, in every sense.

BTW, note that it had better be pretty chilly and, preferably, raining if you are going to wear a waxed jacket. They are very striking but they are also pretty miserable if it is anything above 60 F, especially if the sun is out.

 

[oldog/oldtrix]



First, kind of almost definitionaly, you can't really wear a jacket over a jacket. So you really need some sort of overcoat or trench coat.

Johnny!!! Great to hear from you on the SF.

 

[williamson]



Anyway, a waxed jacket over a city suit doesn't really work any more than hiking boots and a suit would work and for much the same reason. But this isn't to say that you can't wear a waxed jacket in the city. For example, chukka boots, jeans/moleskins and a striped/checked shirt would work perfectly with a waxed jacket, especially on Saturday morning at the farmer's market. It's really all about context, in every sense.

Exactly!

 

[E TF]

You do see guys in the City wearing barbours over their suits. It's their way of saying "I want to appear that I don't care too much about my clothes, that I just pulled this barbour on as it was the first thing to hand as I walked out the door and it looked like rain - but want I really want you all to know is that I spend my weekends at my estate in the country." Most of them are lying and it's embarrassingly obvious. If you have a country estate where you spend your weekends engaged in field sports, then go for it. If you don't, then beware.

 

[dandy1]

So would you say wearing one of these is wrong at all city suit or otherwise if you don't have a country estate? I don't have a country estate but I like the design. If we all had to wear clothes which only reflected our real day to day roles / lifestyle the type of clothes we all wore would be severely limited, by the same logic should people only wear jeans if they work down a copper mine in the states or wear the SF ers favourite the double monk if you are a really a monk ?

Dandy/

 

[zippyh]

What would Jack McCoy do?

 

[Bounder]



You do see guys in the City wearing barbours over their suits. It's their way of saying "I want to appear that I don't care too much about my clothes, that I just pulled this barbour on as it was the first thing to hand as I walked out the door and it looked like rain - but want I really want you all to know is that I spend my weekends at my estate in the country." Most of them are lying and it's embarrassingly obvious. If you have a country estate where you spend your weekends engaged in field sports, then go for it. If you don't, then beware.

Well, if you really do have a country estate, your Barbour is probably in the back of an old Land Rover and covered in dog hair rather than hanging in your closet in London. Poseurs also seem to forget that new Barbours are incredibly naff, especially if you are trying to pretend not to be a poseur.

If you want something "country" to wear over your suit, get a covert coat, preferably without the velvet collar.

 

[dandy1]

i understand where youre coming from bounder & ETF .. and this is kind of why i started the thread. however i quite like the barbour classic waxed coat for casual wear as its practical, hardwearing as well as its aesthetics (personally i wouldnt wear it over a suit, i was just saying i saw guys in the city wearing it this way and i thought it looked good at the time .. a bit like at fashion shows where they juxtoposition different items just for an interesting fresh look, dont get me wrong i really wouldnt do this myself as i agree that clothes need to be worn in context as well as the fact a wool suit under a waxed coat which doesnt breathe would be quite uncomfortable on the tube etc).

i think part of the reason people in the uk at least have such a strong aversion to this rather innocuous jacket is because of the strong conotations which come with it .. ie upper class english toff wearing one at the weekend in the country. therefore it brings up issues of class and privilege in the uk where for the last 20 years + we've gone through a period where a liberal classless society has been encouraged by the mainstream so much so that the upper classes hide any of their old characteristics (so now the upper classes tone down their stiff upper lips to fit in .. prince williams for a good example of this). interestingly the italians seem to be happy to wear them casually and i think its partly because they dont have this issue with the english class system and clothes worn by a particular set.

its especially interesting as a mens clothing in england (and by extension the rest of the world which copied english fashion pre war) mimiced what the english upper classes and specifically royalty wore .. without people like the Duke of Windsor modern mens fashion and the stuff we talk about half the time on SF wouldnt be done at all. now im not trying to be a spokesman for a reversion back to a rigid class addled society pre '80s but i think its illogical to say you shouldnt really wear one unless you are part of the landed gentry! as i said above should nobody wear anything that 'belongs' to a particular set? Should no-one here wear a polo shirt, chinos and loafers unless they have a villa in the hamptons and play polo over the summer?

dandy/

 

[tinsel]

Dandy,

Your ability to outline the problem does not mean it does not exist. The mainstream is far from classless and liberal just take one look at newspaper subscription statistics. The Sun and The Daily Mail are arguably the two most class obsessed publications around. And the City of London is definitely not a class free zone.

Regardless of where British society is moving, class is still overwhelmingly used yardstick. I don't agree that it should be like that, and certainly you could make the argument that wearing clothing that is inappropriate to your class is a strong way to move in a progressive direction. The problem is that what tends to happen is people wear class inappropriate clothing aspirationally rather than counter-culterally. Wearing a waxed Barbor in the city tends to be a perfect example of this. To be honest, I couldn't care less either way.

I think wearing clothing based on material appropriateness is a good route to go down, but again it is just one reason to wear certain clothes over others. I agree that a waxed jacket can be extremely practical, however this tends to be in its native environment of countryside pursuits, hence a lot of the design details. But for me a person should always wear what they want. I will almost certainly make assumptions and judge them, but if that is enough to stop them I will judge them even more.

Therefore in conclusion: wear your Barbor in the city. And wear it over a polo shirt, chinos and loafers. Confuse the hell out of me when I walk past you on Liverpool Street and try to place you as my class filled upbringing compels me to!

 

[Racing Green]

This is like a thread from the 1980s, bizarro stuff. Classic Barbour waxed jackets - Bedale, Beaufort even International or Liddesdale - have been streetwear in the UK for 5 if not 10 years. Walk 5 minutes from Liverpool Street down to Hoxton, Spitalfields or Shoereditch and you'll see tons of them - worn with brogues, trainers, jeans, skinny chinos, whatever.

There's a Barbour shop in Spitalfields beside the hipster stores like Albam. Good thing for Barbour they're not as out of touch as some of the posters on here. Wear a Barbour with whatever you want, you won't look out of place in London. In fact they're becoming ubiquitous if anything.

 

[dandy1]

Cheers racing green .. yes i work very close to Liverpool St tube station and frequently go down to spittlefields and hoxton after work. Yes a younger 'trendy' crowd of arty rock types wear them .. possibly one effect of buying them for muddy rock festivals in the summer ..

interesting comments tinsel .. i think people in the UK still are very aware of class but its pushed below the surface and has been deliberately toned down to some extent in dress, speech, what people do at weekends and so on but where it matters it still is very much there, namely in social circles and certain workplaces. this cuts both ways as one of my first jobs in the City was working at a stockbroking firm full of east london cockney wideboy types and it was very difficult to get on there if you didnt have the same background.

dandy