Barbour's Wax Jacket Was Made for the North Sea

In 1964 the United States sent a motorcycle team to the International Six Days Trial in East Germany, and Steve McQueen rode with it. He and his teammates raced in Barbour Internationals, waxed cotton jackets made in a town at the mouth of the River Tyne. McQueen was already a movie star. The jacket on his back had been designed for British riders and, before that, the company behind it had been selling oilskins to sailors.

Docks to Hollywood in seventy years, and the jacket barely changed. The people wearing it did.

Oilskins for the North Sea

John Barbour, born in Galloway in Scotland, crossed the border into England as a young man. In 1894 he set up J. Barbour and Sons on Market Place in South Shields as an importer of oilcloth, selling oilskins and other protective clothing to the seamen who had to work through North Sea weather. Oiled cloth was the technology of the day, heavy and stiff, and it kept a man dry on deck.

The family business grew by mail. In 1908 Malcolm Barbour produced the first catalog, and by 1917 it accounted for almost three quarters of sales. In 1921 the catalog began offering rewaxing and repairs, a service the company still runs more than a century later.

The International and the McQueen effect

The jacket that took Barbour off the waterfront arrived in 1936. Duncan Barbour, a keen motorcyclist, developed the International, a waxed cotton motorcycle suit that British international teams wore until 1977. During the war, a two-piece version called the Ursula suit became standard issue for the Royal Navy's submarine service. In 1947 civilians picked up the International for everyday riding.

Then came McQueen in 1964, and the image of a movie star in a wax jacket on a dirt bike has been doing Barbour's marketing for free for six decades. The company launched its first Steve McQueen collection in 2011 to mark the International's 75th anniversary.

Margaret Barbour's jackets

The modern range came from one person. Margaret Barbour joined the board after her husband John died in 1968 and became chairman in 1973. In 1980 she designed the Bedale, a short riding jacket in 6 ounce waxed cotton with a corduroy collar, bellows pockets, rear vents and a nylon drip strip inside to stop damp creeping up from the horse. In 1981 the company moved into its Simonside factory in South Shields, where the waxed jackets are still made. The Beaufort followed in 1983, based on French shooting jackets, longer in the body than the Bedale and fitted with a large game pocket across the back. The Border, longer still, joined the range in the same era.

Royal approval came in the same years. The Duke of Edinburgh granted Barbour a royal warrant in 1974, Queen Elizabeth II in 1982 and the Prince of Wales in 1987. That stamp, along with Princess Diana wearing the jacket, attached Barbour to the 1980s Sloane Ranger look, and for a while the Beaufort was what you wore to look like you owned land.

Why it keeps coming back

The jacket has survived several identity changes since. By the late 2000s waxed jackets were all over the fields at Glastonbury, worn by musicians and models as well as the crowd, and a country jacket had become festival wear. In 2012 Daniel Craig wore a modified Barbour as James Bond in Skyfall. Alexa Chung's womenswear collaborations with the brand began in 2019. More recent partners range from Ganni and Erdem to Supreme, and in 2023 Barbour worked with Gucci's Continuum program on reworked secondhand jackets.

The real reason it lasts is the wax. Barbour still rewaxes and repairs jackets for customers, and in 2021 it marked 100 years of the service. A well-kept Bedale goes darker and more creased with every reproofing, much like a pair of raw selvedge jeans that records every wear. It belongs with the Stone Island and MA-1 jackets in a short list of outerwear designed for a job and adopted for everything else. And if you want the town version of British clothing heritage, our guide to visiting Savile Row covers the other end of the spectrum.

Buying advice is simple. The Bedale if you want it short and versatile, the Beaufort if you want pockets and more coverage, the Border if you live somewhere it rains sideways. Size with a sweater underneath. Rewax when the cloth starts to look pale and dry, and never put it in a washing machine. A damp sponge is all the cleaning it needs. Barbour's own history page has the full timeline, and more heritage pieces are on our heritage brands hub and in the Style section.

In May 2024 King Charles III granted Barbour a royal warrant, 37 years after he gave the company one as Prince of Wales. In November 2021 he had opened its Wax for Life repair workshop in person. Few jackets can say a future king cut the ribbon on their repair shop.