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Trench coat Wikipedia

Image:WWITrenchcoat.jpeg|right|thumb|150px|World War I example

For the Walt Disney Company film, see Trenchcoat (movie).

A trench coat is an enduringly popular item of clothing worn round the world. It is generally made of heavy duty cotton, drill (fabric)|drill or poplin, and has a lining which can be removed depending on the weather. It is a descendant of the heavy serge coat (clothing)|coats worn by United Kingdom|British and France|French soldiers in World War I. The classical trench coat was a creation of Thomas Burberry, inventor of gabardine fabric, who submitted in 1901 a design for an army officer's raincoat to the UK War Office. That raincoat subsequently became part of the service uniform of British officers. During World War I, the design was modified to include epaulettes, straps, and D-rings. This latter version was dubbed "trench coat" by the soldiers in the trenches. Towards the World War II|Second World War, the trench coat became part of all enlisted men's and officers' kits, especially in the American forces: the United States Army|US Army, United States Army Air Corps|US Army Air Corps, and United States Marine Corps|US Marine Corps.

During the Second World War, the trench coat was still used by the military forces of nations like Great Britain, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union on the battlefield in cold weather. During the course of the Second World War, the trench coat was removed from battlefield use in favour of smocks (e.g. the Denison smock used by British commandos, paratroopers, and snipers during World War 2) and field jackets (e.g. the M-1941 field jacket and the M-1943 field jacket used by the soldiers of the US Army during World War 2) due to the advantages of the smock and the field jacket being shorter in length than the trench coat and the very mobile nature of the Second World War which saw the removal of the trench coat from the battlefield.

The typical trench coat is a ten buttoned double breasted long tan, khaki, beige or black coat with cuff straps on the sleeves, epaulettes (originally used to hold gloves and folding service caps, such as the Glengarry Bonnet), and a belt that may also have two small brass D-rings as a salute to its military heritage; the rings originally were used to secure grenades, sidearms and/or swords.

Trench coats have remained fashionable over the years. Their genesis as clothing for army officers lent the trench coat a businesslike respectability, whilst fictional heroes as diverse as Dick Tracy, The Phantom, Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade and Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau have kept the coat in the public eye. On a darker note, black leather trench coats were adopted by the Nazi Schutzstaffel|SS as a means of inspiring fear and respect, and the subsequent Hollywood image of the black-clad, trenchcoated Gestapo officer has entered popular culture. The Columbine High School massacre was widely blamed on the Trench Coat Mafia to which its perpetrators were erroneously said to have belonged, and in the wake of the incident several schools in Denver went so far as to ban pupils from wearing trench coats.

Trench coats are also very common in gothic, heavy metal and cyberpunk fashion, popularized by The Matrix movies.

See also Coat (clothing)|Coat.

Category:Tops

Category:Clothing
Category: Fashion
ja:トレンチコート

Last Modified:   2005-12-15