The trench coat is one of those rare pieces whose story deserves to be told. Born in the mud of the First World War trenches, it has crossed the century to become an essential in the elegant wardrobe, worn by both men and women.
Its origin dates back to the 1850s, when Thomas Burberry developed gabardine, a tightly woven cotton fabric that was breathable and waterproof. But it was in 1914 that the trench coat found its true purpose: British officers needed a functional coat capable of withstanding the elements while allowing freedom of movement. The piece was designed with precision: epaulettes for rank insignia, D-rings for attaching equipment, a storm flap on the chest, a back vent for riding a horse. Every detail had a function.
After the war, the trench coat did not disappear. It migrated from the battlefields to cinema screens. Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Alain Delon in Le Samouraï — the trench became the costume of magnetic antiheroes, elegant spies, liberated women. It embodies a form of sophisticated nonchalance that cinema immortalized.
Today, the trench coat is a cornerstone of the contemporary wardrobe. It comes in cotton, linen, silk, but it is in cashmere that it finds its highest expression. A cashmere gabardine retains the practical spirit of the original model — protection from the wind, the generous cut that cinches with a single gesture — while adding a softness and nobility that the officers of 1914 could never have imagined.
Wearing a trench coat today is wearing a century of history. A piece that has known war and peace, military rigor and cinematic insolence, function and form. The trench coat never goes out of style because it does not tell the story of one era: it tells them all.