Ask anybody to picture a mod on a scooter and they will hand you a fishtail parka. Fair enough, that image has had sixty years of reinforcement behind it. But go back to 1962 and the parka barely features, because the coat a sharp lad put on over his suit for a wet Tuesday night was a mac.
The mac is older than almost anything else we sell. It was invented in Glasgow by a chemist who was not remotely interested in clothes, and it solved a problem nobody had solved before.
Charles Macintosh and the 1823 Patent
Charles Macintosh was a Glasgow chemist working with naphtha, a by product of coal tar distillation. He found that it dissolved natural rubber into a workable paste, and in 1823 he patented a method of sandwiching that rubber between two layers of cloth. The result was properly waterproof, which no garment fabric had ever managed before. Sailors, coachmen and anyone who had spent a life being wet took it seriously straight away.
It was also fairly horrible. The early macintosh stank of rubber, went stiff in cold weather and turned tacky in the sun, and the seams leaked because the tailors making them punched needle holes straight through the waterproof layer. Thomas Hancock's vulcanised rubber, patented in 1843, sorted most of that out. The name stuck regardless, and the stray k that everybody adds to the spelling has been a mistake in good standing for two hundred years.
Gabardine, and Thomas Burberry Changing the Rules
The real jump came in 1879. Thomas Burberry, who ran a drapers in Basingstoke, developed gabardine by proofing the yarn before it was woven rather than coating the finished cloth, then weaving it tightly enough that water ran off the surface while air still passed through. He patented it in 1888. A gabardine mac breathes. A rubberised one never did, and anyone who has spent an hour inside one will tell you that this is the whole reason the modern mac exists.
Cotton gabardine is still the benchmark and it drapes better than anything else at this price. Poly cotton blends hold a crease, shed water for longer between treatments and cost less, and there is no shame in owning one. They do sit differently across the shoulder though, and once somebody points it out you will not stop noticing. Have a look at how the shoulders hang next time you are comparing two coats in our jackets and coats range.
Why Mods Wore a Mac Before They Wore a Parka
A mod in 1962 had a specific problem. He owned a suit that had cost him most of a month's wages, and he had to get it across town on a Lambretta through English drizzle. A mac went over the lot. Long enough to keep road spray off the trousers, cut loose enough to sit over a jacket without crushing the shoulders, and quick to take off at the door so he could walk in looking like he had arrived by taxi.
The M-51 fishtail parka took over from around 1964 and the reason is dull. Surplus was cheap, the parka was warmer, and nobody cared if it got wrecked. We would argue the scene lost something in that swap. A mac over a tonic suit is a far better looking thing than a parka over anything, and the parka mostly won because it was disposable. We still stock plenty of parkas, and we still think the mac is the sharper coat.
Single Breasted, Double Breasted and the Trench Confusion
Single breasted with a fly front is the mod choice and has been from the start. Clean line down the middle, buttons hidden behind a placket, nothing catching the eye. Double breasted with storm flaps, epaulettes, D rings and a tied belt is a trench coat, a British military design from the First World War, and a different garment whatever the label on the hanger says.
| Style | Front | Detailing | Wears best over |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fly front mac | Single breasted, concealed buttons | Plain body, welt or slash pockets | A suit or a knitted polo |
| Double breasted trench | Double breasted, belted waist | Storm flap, epaulettes, D rings | Heavy knitwear, not tailoring |
| Car coat mac | Single breasted, exposed buttons | Cut to just above the knee | Casual trousers and boots |
| Short mac | Single breasted, three or four buttons | Finishes on the seat | Jeans, and very little else |
Neither front is wrong. But a trench worn over a slim suit with the belt tied in a knot flattens the shape of both garments at once, and we have yet to see it look like anything but a compromise.
Raglan Sleeves and Where the Hem Should Sit
A raglan sleeve runs as one piece from the underarm up to the collar with no shoulder seam. It takes its name from Lord Raglan, who lost an arm at Waterloo and had his coats cut that way, and the Crimean War pushed the design into general use. On a mac it does two jobs. It gives you enough shoulder movement to reach the bars of a scooter without the whole coat riding up your back, and it sheds water down an unbroken panel instead of across a seam.
Length is where most people go wrong. The hem wants to sit at the top of the knee, or an inch above it at the shortest. Any higher and it stops covering your trousers on a bike, which was the point of the thing. Any lower and it flaps around your calves and starts to read as a costume coat instead of something you own and use. If you are under about five foot eight, get it shortened. A tailor will do it for less than you fear. Finish the whole business with a Tootal scarf at the neck and a pair of brogues underneath.
Reproofing and Keeping It Alive
A cotton gabardine mac is water repellent rather than waterproof, and the repellency is a finish that wears off with use. It goes first across the shoulders and along the tops of the sleeves, where rain hits hardest and where a rucksack strap rubs. Once water stops beading and starts sinking into a dark patch, the coat is telling you it needs redoing.
- Sponge mud off with cold water and let it dry naturally away from a radiator, because heat sets stains into cotton permanently.
- Dry clean sparingly. Solvents strip the proofing, so ask whether the cleaner offers a reproof at the same time and pay for it if they do.
- Wash in proofers go through the machine, spray on proofers go onto damp cloth. Both work. Sprays are easier if you only need to redo the shoulders.
- Hang it on a broad wooden hanger. A wire hanger puts a dent in the shoulder of a raglan that never fully comes out.
Mac Coat FAQ
The questions that come up most often when somebody is choosing their first mac.
- What length should a mens mac coat be? The hem should sit at the top of the knee or an inch above it. That keeps road spray off your trousers on a scooter and stops the coat swamping you. Anything below the knee starts to look borrowed unless you are well over six foot.
- Is a mac the same thing as a trench coat? No. A mac is normally single breasted with a fly front and a plain body. A trench is double breasted and belted, with storm flaps, epaulettes and D rings, and it comes from First World War officer kit, not from Glasgow chemistry.
- Can you wear a mac over a suit? That is exactly what it was designed for. Buy it a size up from your jacket size so the shoulders sit over your tailoring without crushing it, and check you can do the buttons up with a suit underneath before you commit.
- How often should a gabardine mac be reproofed? Once a year for a coat in regular winter use, or whenever water stops beading on the shoulders. If you have had it dry cleaned, treat that as a reproof due regardless of how it looks.
- Are mac coats waterproof? Cotton gabardine is water repellent and will handle British rain for a good few hours. It is not a technical waterproof and it will eventually wet out in a downpour, which is the trade you make for a coat that breathes and drapes properly.