My top topcoats

As winter is fast approaching, it is a good time to take a look back to some of my overcoats, aka topcoats.

First up is an American 1950s or 1960s model bought at the huge vintage store Flip on Long Acre, Covent Garden, London in about 1982. I am here on the wintry East Yorkshire coast with my pals Katy Wheelwright, her husband and my oldest friend Jeff Wheelwright, plus Sara and Gary Armitage, chums from Hull University.

Thousands of these American garments were shipped over to Flip. They were such a craze we featured them in Men’s Wear magazine, where I was deputy editor from 1982 until 1984. Like Alfred Hitchcock, I appeared in one of my own productions. I once discussed the wool tweed coat with an American colleague who told me it was a “Spring weight” cloth. The idea of different qualities of topcoats was then a new concept to me.

Somewhat heavier was this brown wool British coat that was warm enough to keep me insulated from the Russian winter when I visited Moscow and Leningrad (now St Petersburg) in December 1986. Apologies for the poor quality shots – it was a simple single-breasted model with a fly front.

I did without a conventional tailored topcoat for years, relying instead on parkas and the like. Then c 2012 I borrowed this Made-in-England Aquascutum “shorty” coat from the company for a few years. Had I known the once-mighty brand was going to go pop, I probably would not have returned it to them.

My longest-serving topcoat is this rather handsome cashmere example by Polo Ralph Lauren (Blue Label). It was made in Italy by Corneliani and I bought it in a sample Sale from my pal Gerry Dixon, who was the Italian firm’s UK agent. It’s a classic.

It was a treat to be given this Made-in-England topcoat in 2013 by Marks & Spencer‘s menswear design chief Tony O’Connor. It was made, I think, by the now defunct Cheshire Bespoke factory in Crewe using a lovely soft wool cloth woven by Abraham Moon in Yorkshire. It was part of M&S’ Best of British collection.

My latest and current favourite topcoat is this one, which I designed. It was made for me by Stewart Christie in Edinburgh and they kindly created a matching cap. The excellent cloth is from cloth merchant W Bill.

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