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LOST WORLDS INC. TRENCH COAT Grenfell Cloth Cotton Made In England |
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The perfect trench coat is, like most things, harder to find than it might seem. While Thomas Burberry & Sons was there at the very beginning in WW I and continues to make quality coats, we sought something less modernized and truer to the construction and materials of earlier versions. Possessing excellent strength and hand, the high quality poly/cotton gabardine used by Burberry and others isn't the pure cotton of the originals. Different materials will fit and drape differently, and similar type coats will be much different. For many years we've admired remarkable Grenfell Cotton, staple of the highest quality English hunting, exploration and outerwear, Outfitters To The Queen. 100% Cotton Gabardine of extraordinarily densely woven construction, superior per weight in hand, durability and performance to other similarly tasked coat fabrics. Grenfell Cloth has existed since the 1930s, having inspired American military Byrd Cloth -- evoking again the explorer heritage -- used for many WWII cotton flight jackets and suits. General MacArthur cited Grenfell in 1944 (see quotation below) so the fabric had a high reputation from infancy. Famed for superb wind and water repellency and strength -- Hilary wore a Grenfell parka on Everest -- but extremely lightweight. Its dense gabardine weave makes for a very expensive, luxurious and beautiful high performance cotton, especially today as such fascinating, little-known gems are virtually unknown and for us across the Atlantic inflated by a weak $ when available at all. After a very tough search we found several hundred yards of Grenfell Cloth in England, enough for around a hundred or so coats, then commissioned the highly respected long-time English manufacturer of Burberry, Montgomery, Purdey and Alfred Dunhill to sew Grenfell Cloth Trench Coats to our specification. Fully correct in the original configuration, beautifully sewn, with a wealth of original details, the Lost Worlds Grenfell Cloth Trench Coat. The true Trench, like our Horsehide Army Trench Coat, was designed for the military, field and, one fantasizes, Orient Express, for the coat-as-icon comes most in our imagination from the movies, detective fiction and images of grizzled, often boozy foreign correspondents describing fascist bombers overhead in a mixture of coolness and awe. Great ones ooze character and craft, intention. Dinosaur from the culture of nicotine or a stunning luxurious, refined everyday coat? Over suit or sweater for anything, exalted or mundane, grind or weekend, a conservative classic to set, not follow, the course, with its peerless military bearing. There are trench coats and trench coats. In the shots above get some idea of the fullness, the drape and line. Images of Bogart, Merian C. and Gary Cooper, adventure. Grenfell Cloth was there then and is our coat today. All highly detailed, as it must be -- it's all in the details. Seemingly new LOST WORLDS clothing, not ultra-heavyweight horsehide motorcycle and flight jackets -- but actually fully consistent with everything we've always admired. CLASSIC GUY STUFF. It is the first LOST WORLDS coat not made in our own factory. We couldn't sell it at a reasonable price if we imported the fabric, then made them ourselves. More significantly, our UK firm has worked with Grenfell Cloth for years, continuing to sew superlative trench, hunting and duffle coats. So our Grenfell Cloth Trench Coat is English through and through, dual heritage of coat and material. Color: Light Taupe 100%
Grenfell Cotton.
US Army Office of
Medical History, Office of the Surgeon General, 1944:
It was determined that the desirable properties of jungle clothing should be:48
Our customers won't be wearing a trench coat in jungle warfare but one wants clothing and performance to exceed mundane civilian uses while linking us to a glorious past. The Grenfell pedigree was, as General MacArthur's comments indicate, highly esteemed even by WWII by those for whom performance and specification were matters of combat survival. High praise.
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©2008 LOST WORLDS INC. All Rights Reserved. |
