A trench coat is an enduringly popular item of
clothing worn round the
world. It is generally made of heavy duty
cotton,
drill or
poplin, and has a lining
which can be removed depending on the weather. It is a descendant
of the heavy
serge coats worn by British,
Canadian and French soldiers in World War I. The classical
trench coat was a creation of Thomas
Burberry, inventor of
gabardine fabric, who submitted
in 1901 a design for an army officer's raincoat to the UK
War Office. That raincoat subsequently became part of the
service uniform of British officers. During World War I,
the design was modified to include
epaulettes, straps, and
D-rings. This latter version was dubbed "trench
coat" by the soldiers in the trenches. Towards
the Second World War, the trench coat became part of all
enlisted men's and officers' kits, especially in the American
forces: the US Army, US Army Air Corps, and US Marine Corps.
The typical trench coat is a ten buttoned double breasted long tan, khaki,
beige or black coat with cuff straps on the sleeves,
epaulettes (originally used to hold gloves
and folding service caps, such as the
Glengarry Bonnet), and a belt that may
also have two small brass D-rings as a salute to its military heritage;
the rings originally were used to secure grenades, sidearms and/or swords.
Trench coats have remained fashionable over the years. Their genesis
as clothing for army officers lent the trench coat a businesslike respectability,
whilst fictional heroes as diverse as Dick Tracy, Humphrey Bogart's Sam
Spade and Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau have kept the coat in the public
eye. On a darker note, black leather trench coats were adopted by the Nazi
SS as a means of inspiring fear and respect, and the subsequent Hollywood
image of the black-clad,
trenchcoated Gestapo officer has entered
popular culture. The Columbine High School massacre was widely blamed on
the Trench Coat Mafia to which its perpetrators were erroneously
said to have belonged, and in the wake of the incident several schools in
Denver went so far as to ban pupils from wearing trench coats.
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