“The collection started almost two years ago and there is no end in sight,” says Janis Tomesch over email, sent from his home in Saxony, the mountainous state in Germany.
He’s 20 years old, has just entered the working world after completing a three-year apprenticeship, and owns around 45 Barbour jackets.
“A large part of my fascination with the brand is its closeness to nature. The references to a rural and simple way of life resonates with me a lot – it’s not just a brand, it's a lifestyle.”
Tomesch has always been interested in fashion, having started a small fashion retailer, Tomschke Clothing, as a side hustle when he was 15 years old. He had a Barbour Bedale jacket – which he later sold – in his wardrobe, but was hardly obsessed with it nor the brand. That changed when he was introduced to the 2012 collaboration with Tokihito Yoshida. “There isn’t one model that’s bad. The strong details, the outstanding quality and the fact that many pieces are incredibly rare; they’re just perfect for me.”
He documents his collection (alongside some C.P. Company and Stone Island pieces) on his Instagram account, JNS Archive Portfolio.
He is but one of thousands of wax-jacket obsessives that have found a community of likeminded people online, digitally congregating on platforms like Reddit and in Facebook groups. The Barbour thread on the former is an accumulation of posts, from corkboard-style ads of rare pieces to buy and authentication queries for those buying elsewhere, to pictorial documentation of members’ collections and discussions about their favourite designs. For collectors like Tomesch, it's practically Disneyland.
“I haven't met anyone offline who's as much of a Barbour fanatic as I am, so these communities are essential for me,” he says, explaining that he specifically joined Reddit to be a part of that thread. “No matter what you ask, you always get an answer. And everyone is super friendly: no envy, no hate and no problems.”
Sara Jeffrey is one of the page’s moderators and regularly shares her Barbour knowledge; years working in her family-owned hunting/shooting/fishing shop in Chesham has made her a reliable source. She noticed a spike of users joining during the first lockdown, and it's been growing ever since. But despite the sheer amount of knowledge a novice could accrue with just a few scrolls, many will direct their queries straight into her inbox.
“The average email [I receive] is not a couple of sentences long,” she explains to me over the phone. “They'll give me paragraphs on what they want, what their build is, what use they're going to put it to and the look that they're trying to achieve, so I can guide them.”
Product requirements for collectors change from person to person; those pining for the cropped, boxy silhouette of the Spey jacket may not be interested in the more traditional, country-appropriate Border style. But Jeffrey has noticed that it does attract people who “pay attention to detail” and respect high quality products. And even those who may come to these forums without the intent of building a large collection, will inevitably be enticed by the enthusiasm of those who do.
“Newcomers will see that other people are interested in the history and the ethos of the brand, and that will stimulate their interest in that beyond just wanting to look smart.”
For Simon Carter, a photographer, artist and filmmaker, his collecting streak was hardly expected. “Ten years ago, if you asked me if I would describe myself as a Barbour person, I would have laughed in your face,” he says to me over Zoom, aptly wearing a green Barbour-branded T-shirt. The seed was planted when his eye wandered towards a replica for sale in John Lewis, but he held off from purchasing. Eventually, he went about searching for the real thing at the best price.
“It took me about another five years before I really started hunting things down on Ebay. Maybe because then I was busy and not really computer literate, but I wasn't on it that much. Then I started finding all these things and it started becoming an addiction.”
But for Carter, wearing Barbour is a lot more than just wearing a jacket. “It's like a nice breastplate, if you like. I never know necessarily who I'm going to meet during a working day,” he says, mentioning how he often dons Barbour while on shoots. “You could be dealing with the crew or someone in the coffee shop in the morning, and then all of a sudden, the CEO of a company might turn up to see where all their money is going. The jacket kind of prepares you for that.”
Much like Hunter wellies (RIP) or Classic Land Rover Defenders, many associate Barbour outerwear with the British countryside; worn for everyday dog walks, jaunts to a centuries-old local pub or as water-resistant layer for rainy hunts. A setting where practicality tends to trump fleeting trends.
And as much as it is a uniform for pastoral dwellers, it is also favoured by the upper echelons of British society. The former Duke of Edinburgh gave the brand its first Royal Warrant in 1974, with the late Queen following suit with Royal Warrants in 1982 and 1987. Naturally, the royal’s affinity with the brand was documented in The Crown, and after the fourth season debuted, luxury resale site the RealReal saw a 46% increase in sales of Barbours when compared to the previous month. The Cut went on to call the show “Barbour jacket porn”.
Barbours have often been used in film and tv to depict a certain level of poshness. Another Made in England icon, James Bond, wore a Beacon Sports jacket in Skyfall, while more recently, Succession’s Logan Roy notably wore the brand while trying to woo investors or while hunting wild boar. 007 hardly needs to use his clothes to confirm his Britishness, but as Roy switches from using it practically to a sartorial signifier of taste, wearing the brand becomes more about distancing himself from stereotypical American new-money tropes.
And that brings us to the trend every news outlet has documented far too often this year: quiet luxury. The HBO show has been a vital instigator for it, and Barbour naturally falls into that category – you can’t take a cashmere Loro Piana coat for a sodden weekend in the Cotswolds, after all.
But the brand’s history originates with working seaman rather than upper-class shooters. John Barbour knew a thing or two about how to keep dry when he started his eponymous brand in 1894, having lived in the notoriously rainy Galloway in southern Scotland. So, when he decided to open shop in South Shields with a selection of wax-coated clothing to keep sailors, fishermen and shipyard works dry, it was an instant hit with the local coastal community.
The brand’s customer base may have changed drastically over the decades, but Barbour are all about celebrating its heritage. One of its most popular styles, the Beaufort jacket, has turned 40 this year – the first piece designed by their Chairman, Dame Margaret Barbour – honoured through a commemorative anniversary collection.
“While the Beaufort was originally designed as a shooting jacket, I knew from my research that there was a need for a new type of casual lifestyle jacket that was multipurpose and multi-functional,” Dame Barbour explains of the original style. “It quickly proved to be the case with the Beaufort, particularly after I introduced it in navy blue in 1988, as it widened the appeal to both men and women – it was what people were looking for.”
In today’s age, the quickest way for a brand to attract the interest of a new (likely younger) demographic is through collaborations, and Barbour has had many. NOAH, Supreme and Palm Angels are just some of the streetwear stalwarts that have united with the British heritage brand, which Dame Barbour recognises has attracted “new customers who may not have considered Barbour in the past.” Ultimately, she credits their simple ethos as to what has continued their momentum. “I think it’s because the brand is timeless and functional; it appeals to multi generations because each individual can wear it in their own way to suit their own style.”
Barbour Corbridge Waxed Utility Jacket, Black
Barbour Macklow Wax Jacket, Fern
Carter's first memory of Barbour is from a lady he spotted in a livery yard. “My sister was very horsy, and she often roped me into helping her out and doing a bit of wrangling for her. There's always ladies and gents around, and I saw this lady in her seventies drive the biggest horse truck I've ever seen and park it perfectly in position. She was tiny, probably about 5ft2. She jumps out and she had distinguishable grey hair and a Barbour on.”
This isn't a surprising image to come to mind when uttering the B-word, but Jeffrey notices a new generation of obsessives jumping on the horse wagon.
“We have a group of people from one of the fraternities at Atlanta University. It's almost a uniform: chinos, a Tattersall shirt and a Bedale jacket, which really surprised me. And then you have Korean students who scramble together again every Korean Won that they earn to get their first, usually it’s a black heritage Liddesdale jacket… The trend for oversized jackets and clothes in general in Asia is sort of coming across here, and [Barbour are] picking up on [it]. For example, they’re reintroduced the Spey jacket, which they created for fly fisherman back in back in the eighties and they've reworked it to be baggier. That's being picked up by youngsters in Korea and Japan.”
The help of celebrity endorsements over the decades – first famously by Steve McQueen, then Alex Turner in the late noughties – has softened its upper-class connotations, attracting a new audience of buyers that appreciate it for its longevity. Collectors, in particular, hone in on particular aspects of a Barbour piece with intricate excitement. For Tomsche, he looks for rarity and details, while Carter prefers older designs with cotton linings. The former is in their twenties, the latter is middle-aged. Still, its their shared spark that connects them.
“I think it is their keenness that is so endearing,” says Jeffrey of the Barbour community. “They want so much more than a coat, and they're also really interesting. They're so different. We were stuck during lockdown but I was talking to people from all around the world, every day – and you've got to love that.”
