History

The trench coat was developed as an alternative to the heavy serge greatcoats worn by British and French soldiers in the First World War. The trench coat was created by Thomas Burberry, the inventor of gabardine fabric, who submitted a design for an army officer's raincoat to the United Kingdom War Office in 1901.

The trench coat became an optional item of dress in the British Army, and was obtained by private purchase by officers and Warrant Officers Class I who were under no obligation to own them. No other ranks were permitted to wear them. Another optional item was the British Warm, a wool coat similar to the greatcoat that was shorter in length, also worn by British officers and Warrant Officers Class I as an optional piece.

During the First World War, the design of the trenchcoat was modified to include shoulder straps and D-rings. The shoulder straps were for the attachment of epaulettes or other rank insignia; the D-ring for the attachment of hand grenades or other equipment to the belt. This latter pattern was dubbed "trench coat" by the soldiers in the front line. Many veterans returning to civilian life kept the coats that became fashionable for both men and women.

During the Second World War, officers of the United Kingdom continued to use the trench coat on the battlefield in inclement weather. Other nations also developed trench coat style jackets, notably the United States and Soviet Union, though in the field shorter "field jackets" became more popular, including garments such as the Denison smock used by British commandos, paratroopers, and snipers and the M1941/M1943 field jackets used by the US Army. These garments were shorter and more practical than the trench coat, and as such they allowed the wearer to be more mobile.

A typical trench coat by this period was a ten-buttoned, double-breasted long coat made with tan, khaki, beige, or black fabric. Trench coats often have cuff straps on the raglan sleeves, shoulder straps and a belt. The trench coat was typically worn as a windbreaker or as a rain jacket, and not for protection from the cold in winter or snowy conditions.

Post-1945

Trench coats have remained fashionable in the decades following World War Two. Their original role as part of an army officers' uniform lent the trench coat a businesslike respectability, whilst fictional heroes as diverse as Dick Tracy, Mike Hammer,The Phantom, Humphrey Bogart's Rick Blaine from Casablanca and Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau kept the coat in the public eye. In the 1960s, some mods wore trenchcoats as fashionable overcoats, as an alternative to the fishtail parka or crombie.

The Heavy metal and Goth fashion trend of black oilcloth dusters are usually referred to as trench coats. Early media reports of the Columbine High School massacre initially associated the perpetrators with members of the "Trenchcoat Mafia", a group of outcasts who wore conspicuous black Australian oilcloth dusters. In the copycat W. R. Myers High School shooting days later, the shooter wore a trench coat. In the wake of these incidents, several schools forbade students to wear trench coats, on the grounds that the long coats could be used to conceal weapons.