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Autumn Style: The Trench Coat

The trench coat began, quite literally, in the trenches, which is not usually where one expects a fashion classic to be born. Its roots reach back to nineteenth-century British waterproof outerwear, but the version we recognize today took shape during World War I, when British officers needed something lighter and more practical than the traditional greatcoat. Burberry and Aquascutum helped define the look: weather-resistant fabric, belted waist, storm flaps, epaulettes, deep pockets, and enough military hardware to suggest there was once a purpose beyond looking exceptionally good in the rain.

at MOCA on Grand Avenue

Women began wearing versions of the trench during the war itself, as they took on new roles in the workforce and military-influenced clothing entered everyday life. By the 1920s and 1930s, the coat had escaped the battlefield and joined the modern woman for travel, motoring, and city life. Then Hollywood intervened, as Hollywood tends to do. On-screen, the trench became less about surviving bad weather and more about mystery, independence, and the possibility that something interesting might happen before the next scene.

More than a century later, the appeal has barely changed. A trench can look polished without trying too hard, practical without surrendering to practicality, and borrowed from menswear without requiring an explanation. Designers continue to lengthen it, shorten it, soften it, oversize it, and occasionally reinvent it beyond recognition. Ahead, twelve trench coats that prove the original idea was very good.

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