Historically the sturdiest outdoor garments were tailored from heavy, closely-woven woollen cloth that offered significant protection from the elements. However, there persisted a need for fully-waterproof materials. In the 1500s European explorers in the Americas had noticed how indigenous people used rubber from trees to make capes and footwear and by the mid-1700s Europeans were experimenting with waterproofing fabric for clothing. The first raincoat was manufactured by G Fox of London in 1821 – Fox’s Aquatic, tailored from a twilled mohair fabric called gambroon.

Some early processes used natural rubber and a Scottish chemist, Charles Macintosh, discovered how to use a solution of India rubber dissolved in coal-tar naphtha to bond two pieces of fabric together. The resulting waterproof cloth, patented in 1823, went into production in 1824. The first customer was the British military and soon many cloaks and capes were being made from the new material: later when it was used for raincoats, the Mackintosh (spelt inexplicably with a ‘k’) was named after its inventor. Macintosh’s original ‘India rubber cloth’ was impermeable, but it had an unpleasant smell and became stiff in cold weather, sticky in the heat. When vulcanised rubber was developed (Thomas Hancock patented the process in 1844), Macintosh’s fabrics improved, for the new rubber could withstand temperature changes.

In 1853, Mayfair tailor John Emary invented a cloth that he called Aquascutum (from Latin: ‘water’ and ‘shield’), a woollen fabric chemically treated to shed water. His ‘Aquascutum Wrapper’ soon became fashionable, British army officers wearing the grey raincoats to withstand the Russian winter throughout the Crimean War. During World War One, Burberry (established 1856) created a practical all-weather coat for trench warfare, made of its unique yarn-dyed fine twilled cotton gabardine that was chemically processed to repel water, but also allowed the fabric to ‘breathe’, providing a comfortable alternative to rubber. Subsequently the belted trench coat became a popular style of raincoat and remains a fashion classic, while Aquascutum and Burberry number among today’s British luxury fashion brands.