Aquascutum launches The Bogart Trench

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
May 10, 2016

Few male actors have the fashion cachet of Humphrey Bogart, whose iconic wardrobe of hats, well-cut suits and trenchcoats never goes out of style.

Now, British heritage brand Aquascutum is doing its part to help modern men follow in Bogart's sartorial footsteps, with the launch of a new trenchcoat, named after the actor. The Bogart Trench Coat was launched together with the Bogart Estate, with which Aquascutum has signed a 5-year agreement.

Stephen Humphrey Bogart, Humphrey Bogart’s son, says of the collaboration: “My main mission at the Humphrey Bogart Estate is to honour and protect my father’s legacy. This requires that any partnership we enter into is authentic. In that key sense, it doesn’t get any better than our new partnership with Aquascutum. My father was a loyal Aquascutum customer – perhaps the most iconic trench-coat-wearer in history. I think he’d be honoured that Aquascutum wants to partner with us to launch The Bogart Trench Coat.”

This May will see a small number of Bogart trenchcoats launch in the Aquascutum London stores, and the coat will then be available globally in Aquascutum stores and concessions by August 2016.

Thomas Harvey, Head of Menswear design, Aquascutum comments: “When we started speaking to Humphrey Bogart’s son, Stephen, about collaborating with the Humphrey Bogart Estate on developing a new trench-coat style, I was already thinking about reintroducing a classic, bigger coat into the collection. Many of our customers were coming into our stores and bemoaning the fact that so many brands were now offering the trench as a skinny, tight-fitting fashion item instead of a protective wrap-around.

I dug out the patterns for The Kingsway, which was the style Humphrey Bogart wore, and based the new model on this. The placement of the pockets is the same, as is their size, the sleeves go back to a raglan style, the belt position remains unchanged, and, perhaps most importantly, it’s a big old long coat – around 120cm. It even features a newspaper pocket on the lining of the coat. Some things have been updated: the fabric, for example, is a waterproof cotton blend that takes advantage of advances in fabric technology and so will be longer-lasting. And I’ve adapted the shape to reflect the fact that people’s frames are a little larger these days. But in terms of the overall design, The Bogart is very, very similar to the original Kingsway."

The Bogart Trench Coat will retail at £850.