The trench coat is a British fashion icon that’s been worn by everyone from brave World War soldiers to Sex and the City’s Samantha Jones

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As Joan Collins once said, ‘there is nothing more elegant in winter than dark tights worn with matching knee-length boots and a belted trench coat.’

You might be relieved to hear that trench coats did not in fact originate — as we are often told — in the horrid First World War trenches, but as a coat for sporting and working gentlemen.

The story begins in the 1820s when Charles Mackintosh invented a rubberised, waterproof fabric and fashioned it into a coat. The ‘Mack’, as it became known, was revolutionary and rather revolting — the non-breathable fabric meant moisture vapor from sweat could not escape.

In 1853, Mayfair-based tailor John Emery patented the world’s first wate