Workwear British-Made Women's Coats — Voted by the Community

Coats developed to give warmth and protection from the weather. In Britain, coat making grew alongside tailoring and the textile trades. Eighteenth-century women's riding habits were already adapted from the man's coat, and in the 1870s tailors such as John Redfern began making practical tailored clothes for active women, opening houses in London and Paris in 1881. British inventors shaped waterproof outerwear. In 1823 the Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh patented a waterproof fabric made by bonding layers of cloth with dissolved rubber, and the mackintosh raincoat is named after him. Thomas Burberry developed gabardine, a tightly woven, weather-resistant fabric, in 1879 and patented it in 1888. Unlike rubberised cloth, it let air through, and it was widely used in the First World War for what became known as the trench coat. Heavier woollens and tweeds from regional mills were also used for tailored and casual coats. Women's coats in the UK are still made through pattern drafting, cutting woven cloth, finishing seams for outer layers and pressing for structure.