Who invented raincoats

Throughout this time Mackintosh has been a part of British life; clothing not only the most elegant but also providing waterproof and durable clothing to the British Army and Police. Today Mackintosh still makes clothes in Britain but its popularity has become truly global. From humble beginnings in , the Mackintosh has become known the world over. Learn more about the Mackintosh coat in this British Fashion Council exhibit. Scroll on to meet the man and his iconic creation Who was Charles Macintosh?

Charles Macintosh was born in Scotland on December 29, The Mac was born! How did the coat take off? Overview News. K Social Media. Product Categories. Extended Exhibitor Search Interactive hall plan.

Exhibitor Index A-Z Information for visitors. Topics at K Cooperating Media. Overview for exhibitors. Become an exhibitor Online registration Start-Up Zone. Dashboard Dashboard home Activityboard. International Representatives. Topic of the Month November A brief history of the raincoat. How everything began Charles Macintosh. The abominable rubber odour that the fabric released continued to be a problem; traditional rain jackets still smell very strange to this day. What happened next.

Trend towards rain jackets made out of PVC Friesennerz. In the early 's, people could only keep themselves dry by wearing oiled fabrics like cotton. They were heavy, water repellent and smelled pretty bad.

In , Scotsman Charles MacIntosh pictured was granted a patent on the first 'waterproof' fabric. A raincoat, which is closely related to the riding mac in cut and color, should be cut large enough to fit over a suit, with a one-piece raglan sleeve or with setin sleeves and broad shoulders to accommodate wide-shouldered jackets , Prussian collar, and metal eyelets under the armpits to allow the arms to breathe.

Although not all outerwear needs to be waterproof, up to the turn of the nineteenth century the majority of outerwear on the market could not repel water unless specifically treated with oil. There had been many attempts to waterproof fabric effectively in the early part of the nineteenth century, but the actual method discovered by Charles Macintosh in the early s was in fact intended for use for tarpaulin.

He described his patented material as "'India rubber cloth," whereby the texture of hemp, flax, wool, cotton, and silk, and also leather, paper, and other substances may be rendered impervious to water and air. It was made as a "sandwich" of two pieces of material surrounding a core of rubber softened by naptha. Macintosh warned tailors that the coats sewn from this material without special precautions would leak because of needle holes, but the "India rubber cloth" was deemed such a success that tailors hurried to try to use it nevertheless.

After some time Macintosh was forced to open his own shops to make coats with properly waterproofed seams in order to protect his reputation.

His tartan-lined rubber cloth coat with fully sealed seams remains the iconic raincoat. However, because temperature always rises in the rain and because rubberized cloth is nonporous, the raincoats were liable to make the body perspire when worn. London manufacturer George Spill discovered a solution to this by inserting metal eyelets under the armpits; such eyelets continue to be used in many raincoats.

During World War I, Thomas Burberry devised a weatherproof coat for the officers in the trenches, made of a fine-twilled cotton gabardine that was put through a chemical process to repel water while allowing the fabric to breathe.