Trademark styles make a fashionable return as Barbour and friends team up this winter

Wedged precariously between the industrial hulk of Newcastle and the biting hostility of the North Sea, South Shields doesn’t exactly scream ‘fashion industry’. And yet, since 1894, it’s been home to one of the UK’s most important and celebrated heritage clothing brands. And, right now, that brand is cooler than it’s been in a long time.

Like Hoover vacuum cleaners or Google, the name Barbour has long ceased to refer to just matters of the company itself, and is now a catch-all term for any and every piece of outerwear made from waxed cotton. Many brands make them, but if you take to the street (or the harbour, or the moors) in a wax jacket, people will assume it’s a Barbour.

Scotsman John Barbour came down to South Shields at the end of the 19th century with the view of outfitting the town’s seafarers and fisherman in his oil-cotton outerwear, and that he did. For almost a century, a Barbour jacket was a piece of hardy workwear and little more – popular, capable and reliable, but culturally unremarkable.

Then, in the early 80s, Barbour released the Bedale and Beaufort, two jackets that would swiftly reposition the brand as unofficial outfitter to the British upper classes. They were favourites of the Royal Family – who duly granted Barbour a series of warrants – and then, perhaps even more influentially, the Sloane Rangers, a group of preppy young aristocrats that adopted the Barbour as their default outer layer. Princess Diana wore one while visiting the Isle of Barra in 1985, shielding herself from the persistent Scottish mizzle.

Apart from a brief period in the heady days of roughboys ‘Indie Sleaze’, the Barbour wasn’t ever quite as zeitgeisty as it was in the 80s. But recently, the brand’s stock seems to have suddenly risen once again.

Collaboration is nothing new in fashion – and over the past few years Barbour has variously teamed up with the likes of Noah, Supreme, YMC and Ganni – but this autumn/winter, there is a flurry of new partnerships across the price spectrum and, curiously, each collection features its take on one cult Barbour in particular.

The Spey was another of the brand’s 80s creations, replete with the corduroy collar, the South Ayrshire tartan lining and the oversized two-way zipper. But, designed for the rigours of fly-fishing, it was cut with a drastically short body. The Spey remained the reserve of country sportspeople for decades, but in line with latter-day trends for cropped-torso clothing, its star has risen, and though it started as a cult buy for those in menswear’s preppy fraternity, it seems that, now, everyone wants a piece of the action.

This season, there are cropped collaboration Barbours in collections at Arket, Levi’s, Paul Smith and John Lewis, although none are quite as aggressively short as the original Spey, which Barbour still stocks.

The best of the bunch is at Margaret Howell, where the cropped Barbour forms part of the brand’s fourth collection together. ‘Exploring their archive again reminded me of the strength and purpose in traditional outerwear,’ says Howell, a designer lauded for her mastery of luxuriously functional clothing. ‘I find real satisfaction in refining pieces that are made with care, designed to be worn and built to last.’

Durability is indeed integral to Barbour’s appeal, and purists may decide to seek out an authentic 80s model, though an original Spey will probably set you back well over £1,000. If you don’t want to follow the crowd, the smart move might be to invest in a Barbour homage from the likes of Drake’s, Ralph Lauren or James Coward.

That said, it’s hard to argue with more than 129 years of coat-making heritage. If it’s good enough for the King himself, perhaps it isn’t worth the gamble.