foundations: timeless essentials

Susie Bubble in her Barbour via

i've set up a new essentials feature in my blog tabs menu. this will allow me to periodically assess what is working in my wardrobe. i've also organized accordingly some of my relevant older posts and reviews, so hopefully it will be helpful as well!

incidentally, i found this rather charming article on the storied Barbour jacket.

for instance, did you know that

Today Barbour remains entirely family-owned, and run solely by women: Dame Margaret and her daughter Helen, now 45, who is the vice-president.

another fun snippet:

The oldest jacket that Barbour is aware of dates back to 1911 and is fondly known as Uncle Harry. It belonged to three generations of the Macpherson-Fletcher family before they donated it to Barbour's private archive collection, still in good condition. Dame Margaret's oldest jacket is the Durham. 'My husband designed it just before he died. It was based on a New Zealand jacket. We still make it but we call it something else. I've had mine since 1970 and still wear it.'

here's the official line on how to care for your Barbour to make it last a lifetime:

Barbour recommends that jackets are re-waxed once a year for optimum lifespan, and the South Shields factory alone receives 13,000 per year to be repaired, re-proofed or altered. 

and finally,

The brand has created a new jacket lining and weekend bag using a photograph of all the miscellany found in pockets and linings over the years, including £120 in cash, sheeps' tails, foxes' teeth, a phial of monkey blood, love letters and the keys to St James's Palace.

ha! certainly makes the odd packet of tissues and cab receipts in my Barbour pockets seem even more mundane by comparison!

 

vintage blog photo (per Pret a Porter P's request!): wearing my Barbour bedale in 2010. with saint james shirt, vintage necklace, j brand jeans, loeffler randall boots

read the rest of the article from the Telegraph here.

P.S.: now i'm curious...what's in your coat pockets??