A brief history of Blackwatch tartan

Our W303 Men's Wax Tartan Harrington Jacket

http://oxfordblueonline.co.uk/products/220/w303-mens-wax-tartan-harrington-

It is amazing to see just how much military has given to the world of fashion, a seemingly unsuspecting world giving so much to aesthetic appeal is just uncanny in all senses of the word.

The term "Blackwatch" does not refer to the style of pattern in a direct sense, but a Scottish military regiment, charged to watch and patrol the highlands, wore this dark pattern and has now become known as "Blackwatch tartan", or more accurately - the Black watch's tartan. It is also known as the "Universal" or "Governmental" tartan.

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http://www.tartansauthority.com/tartan/the-growth-of-tartan/military-tartans/regimental-tartans/

The origins of The Black Watch can be traced back to 1725, when George II requested a series of 6  Independent Companies to watch and patrol areas of the Highlands. Following the Jacobite uprising in 1715, the watch was charged with carrying out the duty of:

"Employed in disarming the Highlanders, preventing depredations, bringing criminals to justice, and hindering rebels and attained persons from inhabiting that part of the kingdom."

The Regiment would at first where similar dark colours to each other but would later on have one regional uniform. The Military captains of the six companies were; Lord Lovat, Grant of Ballindalloch, Munro of Culcairn, Campbell of Lochnell, Campbell of Carrick and Campbell of Skipness. A month down the line in mid May 1725, General Wade sent out the following command:

“"Take Care to provide Plaid Clothing and Bonnets in the Highland Dress for the Non-Commission Officers and Soldiers belonging to their Companies, the Plaid of each Company to be as near as they can of the same sort and Colour."

Some have interpreted this as Wade indirectly saying he would prefer if they were all consistent in dress.

Our top selling W49 Ladies Tartan Wax Katrina on the left and W113 Quilted Biker Jacket on the right.

http://oxfordblueonline.co.uk/products/160/w49-ladies-tartan-katrina

Later on as with many other items of military dress, the Governmental Tartan saw it's way into mainstream fashion and secured its territory within the realm of the non military, Oxford Blue's range of blackwatch items branches into coats, jackets and coats which have proved to be popular choices.

A Brief History of the Duffle Coat

The Duffle coat is another one of Britain's iconic items of fashion that found it's way from being an item of functional wear.

It is now one of the best raise to fame success stories in respect to fashion that Britain offers, more often than not, an essential item in every wardrobe, perhaps because it is the only garment in a gentleman's wardrobe to have a hood. Initially starting off as predominately a man's item of fashion, it rose to popularity during it's years and now is widely worn by women.

The iconic "Monty" Duffle coat

The genesis of the duffle coat lies with 19th century British fashion designer John Partridge, the common myth is that the coat comes form the Belgium town "Duffel" but this however is a misconception, the iconic toggle fasteners on the garment had been used in Britain for over 200 years. the garment was initially used by sailors as a piece of functional wear, thus it found popularity within the British Navy during WW1 and WW2.

The iconic "Monty" Duffle coat worn by the Navy

However while worn by the armed forces, two gents in particular really did act as trendsetting trailblazers and set the scene for the duffle coat - namely Field Marshall Montgomery and Sir David Stirling as shown in the picture below:

Though of course not yet in it's fashionable state, these large, functional, work-wear duffle coats were popular amongst various circles within the armed forces.

The trend kicked off during the 1950's and 60's moreso and the garment became more fitted and adapted to fashion trends and thus found it's way in popular culture and TV through the likes of Paddington Bear first seen in 1958, becoming a large hit amongst children:

Most nowadays probably would not know who the Field Marshall who fist donned this jacket is but know what Monty jacket it - a true testament to the power of the success of this garment.

A Brief History of Tweed

Tweed, an icon of British country life, nothing is perhaps more instantly recognisable as British fashion than a classic tweed woven garment.

A HW45 Thelma Hat (Biscuit) and LTW09 Ladies Field Jacket 

The story of tweed is an amusing one, many would think it is after the river tweed that flows through Scotland, however it is quite comical to learn the fact that the name owes it's inception to a simple error in misreading an invoice! Tweel was the original name as a Scottish take on the word twill - its genesis being the fabrics twilled pattern, in 1826 William Watson hailing from Hawick to a London trader James Locke, due to a legibility error or some other factor, Locke misread the name as Tweed rather than tweel and thus the name Tweed as we know it was born. 

W221 and W226 Blazer and Waistcoat respectively (C001L Harris Tweed)

However the style of tweed and its association with gentry, aristocracy came about mid 19th century with the British nobles bringing about what was called estate tweeds. It was common practise amongst the classes of nobility to purchase estates purely for hunting and game keeping, the tweed would protect the wearer from the cold and moist and is considered informal wear by the social classes who adorned it in those days and would often be worn with Wellington's (when hunting) or with tanned shoes when not in the fields. 

The hunting estates coupled with the typical wearing of tweed hence gave birth to what was known as estate tweeds, the staff that would look after the estate were also clad in estate tweed to follow Highland traditions and also to ensure their staff were appropriately shielded from the elements,  

http://pages.rapha.cc/stories/tweed-the-original-performance-fabric

The Highland tradition of specific patterns serving as a distinct identity of each clan surfaced by each twilled pattern specific to an estate as a part of staff uniform. From the 1830's onwards, tweed had become a widespread fashion throughout all estates, and aristocrats would not be seen as genuine had they not followed trend.

LTW09 Ladies Field Jacket, HW57 Helmsley Cap, LTW08 Gilet (Light Green)

In the 1840's the countess of Dunmore introduced Harris Tweed amongst her circles and promoted it heavily to the extent that tweed is now synonymous with the quality and commanding stature of Harris Tweed.

We at Oxford Blue sell a wide range of Harris Tweed garments from blazers, waistcoats, hats and many more, one can always tell a genuine Harris Tweed garment by its smooth feel even though typically tweed is characteristically coarse, visit www.oxfordblueonline.co.uk for more. 

A Brief History of the Wax Jacket

Oxford Blue in it's inception over four decades ago started with just making wax jackets, over the years we have honed this garment to perfection and have now become international selling in Europe, Asia, and even the United States enabling us to become wax garment specialists.

However, what is the wax jacket? How did it come about? Why put wax on a cotton jacket?

All interesting questions.

Like most items of fashion these days, the garment was once an item of functional wear. The wax jacket owes its origins to the initial development of wax fabric itself which found itself first made use by innovative British sailors as a raincoat around the 19th century.

But it all began when sailors noticed that the sails on their ships when wet would slow the vessel down considerably, imagine how heavy your normal everyday jacket gets in heavy rain - now imagine how heavy a large sail a hundred feet in the air on a colossal 19th cent flagship would be! 

The North Atlantic can be a very harsh and inhospitable environment, those sails men who worked at sea over 150 years ago would constantly be slapped by claps of rain, cutting winds and turbulent sea waves. Hence the brave sailors of the day donned a form of armour that shielded them from such harsh working conditions. Survival was of course dependent on the quality clothing one would wear, if a man on deck was soaked he would most definitely render his limbs heavy, slow down work and tire himself out at best, at worst he could catch disease such as pneumonia.

Initially they were apply linseed oil onto their sails and tear off any remains and use them as waterproof smocks - the stage was set for the gradual slope of evolution into the British fashion icon that is the wax jacket.

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However, problems occurred with linseed oil, gradual ageing would turn the garments and sails yellow and in cold the fabric would turn incredibly stiff, it seemed one problem solved turned into a myriad of many more problems. Nevertheless the innovative minds of the day turned to using wax. It rendered the jacket weatherproof yet lightweight and pliable enough for the sailors to carry out their duties.

The traders of the day started selling these garments out to everyone who would benefit from such work wear, thus in the British countryside gamekeepers, farmers, hunters, fisherman and all those exposed to the elements would eventually buy into the wax jacket market. 

Oxford Blue in it's inception started off mainly with functional wear such as:

Our W73 Hobart Cape

W19L Ladies Drover

And indeed we still do make them, however over the years as technology advances, garments such as the hobart cape tend to find themselves reborn into fabrics such as nylon, a much more longer lasting, robust material that does not require re - proofing.

So why keep making traditional wax garments?

The answer is simple, the modern fabrics just cannot displace the image of the aged, antique look of the traditional wax fabric, it has character, history and will continue to live on. The country look would not be the same without a wax jacket on top of a classic shirt and tweed hat. 

That's why we are, classic country clothing, from Oxford Blue.