BURBERRY.COM have launched their bespoke trench coat app. That means you now build the trench coat you want to your almost exact specifications, choosing the cloth type, colour, length.
It’s been built with the perfectionist in mind. The person who demands to know the provenance of his trench coat. Where it is made. Cotton gabardine or cotton sateen.
At MilanStyle, you’ve already learnt how important the trench coat is to any serious gentleman’s wardrobe. Although whether you ultimately choose a Burberry or an Aquascutum will always be own burden to decide. Our advice? Buy both. One this year, the other brand you didn’t get in a few years time in the opposite colour, e.g. a navy Aquascutum if you bought a beige Burberry.
But once we found out BURBERRY.com were inviting the perfectionists, the control freaks and the obsessive compulsives a chance to actually design their own trench coat, almost entirely from scratch, I decided to finally buy a Burberry mac. With this in mind, here is the process you will go through (although please note it is in Beta mode, which may mean changes are made to the process at some point). The word ‘bespoke’ is perhaps a little misleading to anyone who has ever had a bespoke garment made for them, what Burberry actually means is ‘highly customised to your liking’ as they will not be taking any special measurements or making a pattern for you based on your body shape, in the true sense of the word ‘bespoke’. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does require clarification in our opinion. So you will need to be pretty confident of what size you are. Our suggestion is to go into the nearest Burberry stockist and check out what jacket size fits you best.
PLEASE NOTE: BURBERRY SIZING.
BURBERRY USE THE ITALIAN SIZING SYSTEM ON THEIR TRENCH COATS – NOT THE STANDARD BRITISH ‘CHEST SIZING’.
That means the smallest size is a 44 (Italian) and the largest is a 60 (Italian). This is good news for anyone who is particularly slim, broad, tall or short as Burberry have thankfully introduced extended sizes to cater for more body types than their ‘off the peg’ ranges.
TO MAKE YOUR OWN BESPOKE BURBERRY JACKET, YOU WILL NEED:
- The BURBERRY.COM bespoke website
- Your chest measurements
- At least £1200
STEP 1: DECIDE WHAT TRENCH COAT MODEL YOU WANT.
Burberry are currently offering nine different models of (men’s) trench coat styles which you can pick from and customise to your liking.
- Ardleigh
- Featherstone
- Winbourne
- Britton
- Yarmouth
- Featherstone Zip
- Featherstone Leather
- Ardleigh Leather
- Woodrow
To be honest, there is not a huge amount difference between the models apart from the length and how full you like your coat to fit. (e.g. more classic Englishman or more slim-fit ‘mod’). I chose the Britton model.
Has HRH Prince Charles been using the new Burberry app? And more importantly, what model did he choose?
STEP 2: DECIDE WHAT COLOUR TRENCH COAT YOU WANT.
As always, I am a purist who needs to have the classic model of something, or as close to as possible, so for the fabric, I have chosen ‘Cotton Gabardine’ (a fabric which hasn’t changed in almost 100 years, and is almost waterproof due its weave) and I chose the colour ‘Trench’. Why buy a trench coat if you are not going to have it look like a trench coat after all?
By the way ‘Cotton Sateen’ – I have seen coats with this fabric in the Bond Street store – it basically means the fabric is a bit shiny.
STEP 3: DECIDE WHAT COLOUR TRENCH COAT YOU WANT.
This is where things start to get pretty outlandish. If you want them to.
Following the success of BURBERRY PRORSUM collections featuring coats with studded sleeves and leather sleeves set against the classic fabric body, you are now given this option on the Burberry.com app. Choose either of these sleeve types and you will be paying at least £300 extra on top.
OUR OPINION: If cash is not an issue for you, you can afford to be edgy here and replicate one of the Prorsum runway looks by choosing a leather or otherwise embellished sleeve.
If you are however, buying this coat as an ‘investment’, then you should absolutely without a doubt stick to the classic ‘plain’ sleeve and cuff options, where you will quite genuinely be able to wear this coat in 10, 20, 30 years time providing you look after it properly.
STEP 4: LINING OPTIONS.
Do yourself a favour and just stick to the classic haymarket check. Yes, and you do want to be able to pop your collar (like Usher said) and be able to show the Burberry check underneath, for when the occassion suits.
There’s just no point buying a Burberry mac and then not having the signature check inside.
STEP 5: DO YOU WANT A MINK FUR COLLAR?
Just when you thought designing your own trench coat was about as luxurious as it gets, Burberry asks ‘Do you want to add a mink fur over-collar to that, Sir?’.
I didn’t as I don’t live in Siberian Russia, but you might.
STEP 6: CHOOSE BUTTONS.
Again, my personal preference is to keep it classic, so I went for the genuine horn buttons.
STEP 7: BELT OPTIONS.
If you have chosen a leather or studded sleeve, you’ll be given the option to have a matching belt. I kept mine plain, but at a push, I might have chosen a leather belt, as I did think it looked pretty sharp when Burberry showed that combination a few seasons back.
STEP 8: MONOGRAMMING?
I’m not really a fan of this, as I already know the garment belongs to me, but you might want to choose this option.
FINAL STEP: CHOOSE YOUR SIZE
So, just to reiterate, this garment is not true bespoke, it is simply being made to your personal colour and style preferences. That means it’s pretty straightforward to select your size, but you WILL need to know what size you are, or at least read their size guide as bespoke trenches are NON REFUNDABLE. I am a Burberry London size 58, so ordered that size.
WAIT FOR DELIVERY…
Burbery tell me my coat will be arriving in six weeks time (early December) so I will update you then with pictures…
Stay tuned.
Visit BURBERRY.COM and start designing your own trench coat.
Shop BURBERRY at MilanStyle.co.uk
Read more about the Burberry trench coat’s history.
