It’s roots lie in an a marriage between an item designed by John Partridge in 1887 featuring the trademark wooden and rope closure and a hooded Polish frock coat of the 1850’s. Its existence and consequent recognition is down to the Royal Navy big wigs who in the 1890’s employed an unknown to design the duffel coat-based on the above - that, hardwearing and practical, seemed perfect for sailors. The coat, initially a rather spartan unlined hooded affair featured wooden toggle and hemp rope fastening, a square shoulder yoke and large square patch pockets, was deliberately roomy to allow sailors to climb rigging unfettered. Its name comes from the Belgian town of Duffel which produced a heavy linen and woolen cloth that was used for the original duffel bag although not the coat that obeyed the British Admiralty's insistence in 1900 that only British fabric could be used for forces mufti and so a heavy double faced, boiled woolen twill was employed instead. The original color was camel beige as popularized by one Field Marshall Montgomery made it his own. Accordingly the British government fearing the war would never end produced thousands of the blighters that, after the war, went into army surplus stores nationwide.
At first the duffel was adopted by the likes of Dylan Thomas, Samuel Beckett, Jean Cocteau and Labour supremo Michael Foot - bright, bohemian left wing thinkers who, just as their US counterparts, adopted surplus and utility wear as a symbol of rebellion against the stiff collars of the past ultra conservative generation.
One couple who spotted the trend were Harold Morris and his wife Freda, who in 1950, augmented their glove and overall business by buying bought some surplus duffle coat fabric from the navy along with some duffle coats and recreated the item. The brand became known as Gloverall - an amalgamation of gloves and overall – and instead of the original heavy-duty amazingly itchy fabric a kinder 34 oz Tyrolean Loden fabric was used.
Soon the style dripped down to students such as Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett who, along with many other undergraduates of the mid to late fifties sported the item alongside corduroys, brown suede shoes and pullovers (Brown being rather very unconventional back then) smoked pipes, had collar length hair and beards and hung out in cafés such as Soho’s Le Macabre on Meard St and The 2 I’s on Old Compton and embraced a bit of trad jazz, skiffle, folk and blues and supported the CND. The Beatles wore the duffel, as did the US Ivy League brigade.
Ever since designers such as Burberry, River Island, Gabicci and Ralph Lauren have constantly reinvented the duffel, but the TRUE original takes some beating. Of late said item (such as Gloverall’s Monty) has popped up again on the backs of canny souls who, whether sporting it with Levis jacket and jeans and Weejuns, a pair of cords and a big jumper or a sixties suit, tie and wingtips, realise that this is a classic worth revisiting.