Gabardine Clothes
   
     The ancestor of corduroy trench, gabardine trench coat was popularized “in the trenches” of World War I by the British Army officers. These coats turned out to suit military operations greatly due to their weather-proof and styling qualities, just what the British founder of the trench coat, Thomas Burberry, hoped for. It was him who patented the brand in 1888 and later submitted his trench coat’s design to the British military. The design was embraced and welcomed by soldiers and was accepted as the official raincoat of the British Army officer.
  As far as material, original gabardine trench coat was considerably warmer than the modern corduroy trench coat, for example. First trench coats were made of famous gabardine, worsted wool, a clever invention by Thomas Burberry. The uniqueness of gabardine lies in its abilities to resist water, to fight extreme temperatures, and to be a durable and breathable fabric as well. A coat made of the worsted wool was a great addition to the officer’s spring, autumn, and winter wardrobes during World War I. Nowadays one can find such a coat in Kohls Coupons.
   In general, the most valued properties of the worsted wool are insulator, water repellant, and absorber. Wool keeps body warm by catching strings of air among the threads in the fabric and creating a strong warm air-layer. This warm air-layer remains in the wool fibers for a long time, keeping one’s body warm. Today’s popular corduroy trench coats are also considered warm and breathable but not nearly as warm as the gabardine trenches of the old.
   Besides a warming quality, the gabardine coat is water-repellant. Because of its fiber structure, wool can prevent small amounts of water from coming through the fabric. The water drops either stay on the surface of the fabric or run off from it when contact occurs. On the other hand, if too much water gets on a wool sweater, it will absorb the water instantly, keeping the body dryer and cooler when a person is sweating. An interlining of the waterproof silk was added to the first trench coats to keep the coat even drier. Other valuable properties of a gabardine are durability and flame resistance. According to Fabrics.net, wool can take up to 20,000 bents without braking, while, for example, cotton of the modern corduroy trench can be bent only 3,000 times without damaging the material. Therefore, wool is a much more durable and flexible fabric compare to cotton. As far as flammability, wool is resistant to the fire and stops burning as soon as fire is put out on the fabric.
 
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