Colin McDowell has been involved with fashion at many levels, including designing, for more than thirty years. He worked in Italy for ten years before returning to London where he became involved with education. He is proud to say that he taught John Galliano. He has been a journalist since the mid eighties, working for all the quality newspapers and magazines published in the UK and several in the USA. He has been a fashion writer for The Sunday Times since 1986, and at Style for the last ten years.
The Trench as seen in Vogue
As its name suggests, the waterproof coat called a trench began its life in the trenches during World War I on the backs of British army officers and it was almost always bought from one of London’s three top purveyors of men’s protective clothing: Lilywhite, Aquascutum or Burberry.
It has evolved as so much of the male wardrobe has from the huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’ world of the Victorian male. Waterproof and roomy, it was a highly practical garment making no concessions to fashion – which is the reason for its status as a design classic. The trench only became synonymous with style and fashion almost twenty years after the end of the war, when the Prince of Wales – the last monarch to have any influence on fashion – wore it for country pursuits such as point-to-points. But it was Hollywood that gave the trench style.
Tough guys like Humphrey Bogart who played private eyes or even gangsters in the movies were still, in a way, part of the huntin’, shootin’, fishin’ fraternity but this time with different accents … and the prey was human and the stage was the big city, not the wide moorlands. And that is why the trench has survived. It was one of the very earliest garments to be not just streetwise and cool but sexy – in a totally masculine way.
Women loved men in trenches and also on themselves. Dietrich, Garbo, Katherine Hepburn and Lauren Bacall loved the sexual ambiguity afforded by this mild form of cross-dressing, and they still do.
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Farewell to The London Paper
After a leisurely lunch at Villandry, I embarked on the second leg of my expedition with renewed vigour. I had to do Smythson very quickly indeed otherwise I really would have bought the entire shop and as for Vivienne Westwood, well, ‘accessory heaven’ probably sums it up very succinctly. I didn’t buy ten sweaters in Ralph Lauren but I was sorely tempted by a mannish wool coat that I dithered over for a good twenty minutes but decided to leave as the sleeves were a touch too long. That said, Bicester Village offers an alterations service so if I’d wanted it badly enough I could easily have fixed that. As I predicted, I couldn’t leave Ralph Lauren empty-handed so I invested in a khaki green canvas tote bag which will serve me well as an everyday bag for all year round. That ticked one of my ‘luxury basics’ boxes. Next, to Wolford for the black long-sleeve body I’ve been wanting to buy for months. I entered with an open mind, thinking I might have to settle for less. But no, they had the perfect piece, in my size at a very good price. Another tick in the ‘luxury basics’ box.
