Business Style: December

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Get Into the Trenches

By Jeanne Winnick Brennan and Carol McCain 

Trench coats – that is. The versatile, classic coat is back with a vengeance. Never really out – this season it’s hot, hip and very in. While long associated with many professions, including the world of spies and foreign intrigue, the mania for trench coats today is well associated with the image of the businessman or businesswoman and those on the go. It is easily packable, and it can rally for any occasion – casual or formal.
    From Greece to London, from New York to D.C., and here on the West Coast, you’ll find trenches as coats and jackets in all lengths, colors and fabrics this season. Always great for comfort, style, and practicality, it’s been a closet staple for almost 100 years as the all-purpose, all-weather coat. It looks smart, it’s roomy, and it moves well for people on the move – between meetings, traveling abroad, walking the dog, or on a weekend getaway.
    Whether you’re at the top of your profession or dressing to get there, you’ll do well with one or more in your wardrobe. With so many variations, this is definitely the year to make your selection and customize the classic look that will take you where you need to go, effortlessly.
    According to Lucretia Carney, a per sonal shopper located in New York who helps her high-end clients navigate the clothes of top designers from Oscar de la Renta to Carolina Herrera, “The trench is an investment piece, and as this sea son offers such a full-range of choices and price points, you couldn’t ask for better time to update your version of this stylish classic.”
    The dashing trench, which made its debut in World War I, was created with a working purpose. The first successful designs were those by Aquascutum as ankle-length coats to be worn by military personnel who literally climbed in and out of trenches.
    Roughly 50 years earlier, Charles Macintosh and Thomas Burberry were both working on materials for military overcoats. Macintosh’s coats were waterproof, but they had an offensive odor that took the company a long time to remedy. Burberry’s material allowed the water to puddle as small droplets rather than soak through, and it was made of a double-woven fabric of cotton that came to be known as gabardine, which is still in use today. Aquascutum had the patronage of Edward VII, the Prince of Wales, which gave it the mar keting edge.
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