Baracuta G9 Harrington

The G9 is a short, close-fitting zip jacket in a dense poly-cotton cloth, ending at the waist in a deep ribbed band that matches the ribbed cuffs. A short ribbed collar, the 'dog ear', closes with two buttons; two slanted pockets, each with a single button, were cut to hold a pair of golf balls; raglan sleeves leave the shoulders free. Across the back an umbrella yoke, a loose second layer of cloth, lets rain run off rather than soak through, and inside is the Fraser tartan that identifies it at a glance.

It was made in Manchester. The Miller family had been making raincoats there since 1912, and in 1937 John and Isaac Miller founded Baracuta and designed a jacket for the golf course, where they had watched other players struggle to swing in long coats. The G stood for golf and the 9 for the nine holes. A year later Lord Lovat, chief of the Clan Fraser, allowed them his family's tartan for the lining, and the jacket was complete.

The name by which most people know it came later and by accident. Isaac Miller took the G9 to New York in the 1950s, where it was worn on Ivy League campuses, and in 1964 Ryan O'Neal wore one through almost every episode of Peyton Place as Rodney Harrington. When the outfitter John Simons put a G9 in the window of his Ivy Shop labelled 'Harrington Jacket', the label stuck, and it has since passed to the jacket's many copies. Mods, skinheads, punks and Britpop bands wore it in turn.

Baracuta has been Italian-owned since 2012, but says the G9 is still made in Britain, now in a London factory. The cloth is a modern poly-cotton and the tartan lining a breathable synthetic. The cut, the collar, the pockets, the yoke and the ribbing are where the Millers put them.