Barbour: The Story of Britain's Favourite Wax Jacket
From South Shields oilskins to a royal wardrobe staple — how a humble waterproof became one of the most British things you can wear.
Few garments say “British countryside” quite like a Barbour. Worn-in, weatherproof and faintly smelling of wax, it is the coat of dog walks and country shows, of farmers and princes alike. Its story begins not in a fashion house but on a windswept quayside in the north-east of England.
From South Shields oilskins
John Barbour, a Scotsman from Galloway, founded J. Barbour & Sons in South Shields in 1894, selling oilcloth and waterproofs to the sailors, fishermen and dockworkers of the north-east coast. The brief was simple and unglamorous: keep working people dry. The company still operates from South Shields today, more than 130 years on — a rare thread of continuity in British manufacturing.
The wax jacket becomes an icon
Barbour’s reputation was built on the waxed-cotton jacket: tough, reproofable and built to last a lifetime. The Beaufort, introduced in 1983, became the definitive country jacket and a favourite far beyond the fields it was made for. The waxed finish is the heart of it — and the brand’s enduring “care and repair” ethos, rewaxing and mending jackets for decades, is quietly radical in an age of disposable fashion.
A royal favourite
The royal connection runs deep. Barbour holds royal warrants spanning reigns — granted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1982 and by the then-Prince of Wales (now King Charles III) in 1987 — and in May 2024 it was granted a Royal Warrant to His Majesty The King as a manufacturer of outerwear. Generations of the royal family have been photographed in Barbour at Balmoral and Sandringham, which only cemented its status as the country coat.
Why it endures
In a world of fast fashion, Barbour’s appeal is its refusal to be fashionable. It is bought to be kept, reproofed and handed on — a little battered, all the better for it. That, more than any royal warrant, is the most British thing about it.
Royal Warrant holder status is reviewed periodically and can change; details are correct as of 2026.
