Why is trench coat called

Politics Joe Biden Congress Extremism. Special Projects Highline. HuffPost Personal Video Horoscopes. Follow Us. Terms Privacy Policy. All rights reserved. Transcendental Graphics via Getty Images. Imagno via Getty Images. Universal History Archive via Getty Images.

Suggest a correction. So Long, Hyaluronic Acid. The coat from that film is still iconic and he only wore it in two scenes. The trench coat became popular for women after the war, too, into the s and then present day. The trench coat could, fashion insiders learned, be dressed up or down, as exemplified by Jackie Kennedy , who paired it with an evening gown in the s, and Jane Birkin , who wore it with a straw handbag and ballet flats.

Throughout its life, the trench coat has seen everything from battles to runways, bayonets to bloggers. United States. Type keyword s to search. The trench coat, as it soon came to be known as, fit the bill perfectly.

They had to make do with the old greatcoats, sometimes cutting the bottoms off to allow greater ease of movement. Uniforms for those with higher ranks, however, were a very different story. While their dress was dictated by War Office mandates, officers were tasked with the actual outfitting themselves. Having officers outfit themselves also helped reinforce the social hierarchy of the military.

Dress was and still is, of course an important marker of social distinction, so allowing officers to buy their own active service kit from their preferred tailors and outfitters set them apart, fortifying their social supremacy. The officers called on firms like Burberry, Aquascutum and a handful of others who marketed themselves as military outfitters; notably, these also tended to be the firms that made active, sporting wear for the very same aristocratic gentleman Aquascutum, for example, enjoyed no less a patron than the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII; he wore their overcoats and issued them their first royal warrant in This marriage of sporting wear and military gear was longstanding.

Burberry, for example, designed the field uniform for the standing British army in and noted in promotional materials that it was based on one of their sportswear suits; Aquascutum was selling overcoats and hunting gear to aristocratic gentlemen and outfitting British officers with weatherproofed wool coats as far back as the Crimean War in Burberry and Aquascutum both created designs informed by their own lines of well-made, nicely tailored clothing for wealthy people who liked to fish, shoot, ride, and golf.

This also tailored nicely with the image the British military wanted to convey: War was hell, but it was also a sporty, masculine, outdoorsy pursuit, a pleasure and a duty. But in truth, no one really knows. Firstly, it was a coat worn by officers in trenches. A blindingly obvious statement, sure, but it deserves some unpacking — because each part of the trench coat had a function specific to where and how it was used and who used it.

The belt, reminiscent of the Sam Browne belt , would have come with D-rings to hook on accessories, such as binoculars, map cases, a sword, or a pistol. At the back, a small cape crosses the shoulders — an innovation taken from existing military-issue waterproof capes — encouraging water to slough off; at the front, there is a gun or storm flap at the shoulder, allowing for ventilation.

The pockets are large and deep, useful for maps and other necessities. The straps at the cuffs of the raglan sleeves tighten, offering greater protection from the weather. The collar buttons at the neck, and this was for both protection from bad weather and poison gas, which was first used on a large scale in April ; gas masks could be tucked into the collar to make them more airtight. Many of the coats also came with a warm, removable liner, some of which could be used as emergency bedding if the need arose.

At the shoulders, straps bore epaulettes that indicated the rank of the wearer. By Christmas , officers were dying at a higher rate than soldiers by the end of the war, 17 percent of the officer class were killed , as compared to 12 percent of the ranks and this precipitated a major shift in the make-up of the British Army.

The mass pre-war recruitment drives had already relaxed requirements for officers; the new citizen army was headed by civilian gentleman.