Outer layer charm for both women and men
In the iconography of style, there are few symbols as loaded with meaning as the trench coat, and that goes for the women’s version as much as the men’s.
It’s all about Hollywood. You could even say, without too much exaggeration, that it’s all about Casablanca, the ultimate wartime romance and a movie that you could safely pitch as the story of a man, a woman and a trench coat. On Humphrey Bogart as Rick, the coolest character in movie history, the belted trench suggests strength, knowledge and secrets to be hoarded. Loosen that belt and who knows what might happen.
For the women, think Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, all glamour and mystery and again, inescapably, the heady almost indefinable allure of movie sex.
Other associations also weigh in to give the trench a classic quality you might think warrants a place in the Timeless 50, (and you can vote on http://timeless50.com/).
Acquascutum and Burberry might both claim to have invented the style, but there is no doubt it came to prominence among British officers in the trenches of the First World War. It has also figured plenty in other movie genres, think Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies or Woody Allen communing with Bogie in Play It Again Sam. Once a coat gets its own movie send-up, its iconic status is assured.
