Barbour International

The International is a short motorcycle jacket in heavy waxed cotton, black and matte, cut short at the hip. A stiffened belt closes it at the waist and a buckled strap closes the throat; a zip runs beneath a storm fly fastened with press studs, the collar is lined in corduroy and the body in tartan. Four pockets close with studs, and one of them, high on the left breast, is set at a slant so that a rider can reach a map or a trials time card without sitting up.

It began in South Shields, where John Barbour had set up as an importer of oilcloth in 1894 and the firm had learned to keep the North Sea out of seamen's clothes. His grandson Duncan rode motorcycles, and in 1936, by the company's account, he made a waxed riding suit for the purpose; a friend wore it to win the Scottish Six Days Trial that year. The war turned the one-piece suit into a two-piece for the submarine service, and in 1947 the two-piece International entered the civilian range. The slanted pocket came in 1951.

Through the 1950s and 1960s it was close to a uniform for long-distance trials riding. The Vincent Owners Club adopted it in black in 1953; by 1957, Barbour says, nearly every rider at the International Six Days Trial wore one, and police patrolmen and the army's display team had it too. In 1964 the American team at the trials in East Germany, Steve McQueen among them, rode in Internationals.

The name now covers a whole fashion line, and Belstaff has since taken Barbour's place among riders. The International Original is the one that keeps the old construction: 8oz waxed cotton, belt, strap and slanted map pocket, studded to take a pile lining for winter. Like Barbour's other waxed jackets it can go back to South Shields to be re-waxed and repaired rather than replaced.