Formal British-Made Men's Duffle Coats — Voted by the Community

The duffle coat takes its name from Duffel, a town in the province of Antwerp in Belgium, where a thick woollen cloth was made. “Duffel” came to mean any heavy woollen cloth. In the 1890s the British Admiralty bought hooded, toggle-fastened coats in quantity from several makers for the Royal Navy, where they were known as convoy coats. The large toggles and rope loops could be fastened and undone while wearing gloves in cold weather. A slightly modified version was widely issued in the Second World War, and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery wore one so often that it became known as the “Monty” coat. After the war, large stocks of cheap military surplus made the duffle a common civilian coat in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, especially among students. Gloverall, which had started out selling surplus coats, began making its own version in the 1950s, with leather fastenings and horn toggles. The duffle coat is still valued for its warmth, practicality and simple shape, and British-made versions keep these features today.