JKR

Barbour

Following on from last week's launch, Champions of Design this week considers the British clothing brand, Barbour. The 100 year old, family owned clothing company has become famous for its waxed jacket which has become essential country dweller's attire. As the brand evolves, it has grown to attract a more urban audience by combining its rich heritage with classic design and innovation. As such, Barbour's popularity looks set to weather any storm.

Read below to see the brand lesson which we drew from this classic brand, outlined by Silas Amos...

Barbour might be more of a tortoise than a nimble fashion-forward hare, but this has served them well. Some see hazard in their recent adoption by Alexa Chung, Sienna Miller, et al.  The perfect partner for Hunter wellies, with a flagship Carnaby street store and design partnerships with the likes of Anya Hindmarch, might they be skirting the ‘Burberry trap’ where ubiquitous popularity translates into naffness?

I doubt we need fear for the brand’s longevity when the fashionistas move on. Barbour have form; having once profited as the definitive ‘80s Sloane Ranger garment, this stereotype backfired, limiting the brand’s appeal. Yet they met fashionable and unfashionable status and treated these two imposters just the same.

They endured, demonstrating the pluck and tenacity to stick with the one thing for which they were famed and loved - the green-waxed jacket. Their popular biker jacket, with natty Union Jack emblem (a classic reborn) is just the latest in a long line of variations on this basic theme.

While the brand has diversified into other garments (the kind one might arguably associate with Country Life’s ‘girls in pearls’), such ranges feel like a sideshow, and don’t steal the limelight.

Beyond our shores the unchanging Barbour template presents them as quintessentially English – two thirds of the brand’s sales are now overseas. A British classic then. And being the last word in waterproof jackets they can be sure of one constant – might originating in a land where a ready supply of rain is never in doubt suggest one source of their evergreen appeal?

A proud history...

Some of the 70+ variations on the jacket currently available...

Current styles...

But with enduring appeal for certain gals...

For the full article, pick up this week's copy of Marketing.