# Barbour secrets, etiquette old & new differences



## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

What is says on the tin! Bit of fun too though 

1. *Badge etiquette* - the Barbour badge with long brooch pin was already attached to the collars of Barbours when you bought them years ago - so it stays on! (remember we had a chat about this a long time ago? Photos of QEII and Princess Anne with badges on collars?)

2. The badges for new Barbours (since about 2002) are of the thumb tack/short through-pin variety and they come in a little plastic bag in the pocket - the fact that a badge accompanies the garment means that you should really apply it to the garment. However Barbour now leaves that decision up to you, hence the reason it is in the pocket and not on the collar.

3. Do you know how to date your Barbour? I do, I'll tell you later 

4. Old Barbours popper liner. New Barbours zipper liner, so make sure you buy the right liner for the vintage of Barbour you own.

5. Inner cuffs, something you can't see if ordering on the net. For example the Bedale has knitted jersey/jumper type cuffs, whereas the Beaufort has those horrible sharp edged nylon cuffs with a velcro fastening.

6. There are some fakes around and about bearing Barbour labels, I've seen them. And two of the easiest ways to identify them are by the non-Barbour poppers (presumably too expensive to buy to make a pirate worthwhile or unavailable for purchase) and by the fact that they can never seem to get the colour right on the cord collar. That's because Barbour uses different collars and collar colours for different models.

The old classic green, yellow, black and white lining was readily available as quite a common tartan and made it too easy for pirates. Which is why the new Barbours have gone back to using the much older, rarer, original Barbour tartans again.

7. Reproof and mend your Barbour yourself. I've seen a couple repaired by Barbour in England and while they look intact and smart with new underarm sections, the problem is they look...well...smart....but also as if your mum stuck some huge patches on with the sewing machine at home to prevent the arms ripping when you're rolling around in the playground 

8. The older and more knackered a Barbour looks the better. Needle and thread and a tin of wax is all you need.

9. Don't wear a Bedale over a suit.

10. Don't stuff game pockets full of hats, scarves,gloves,newspapers. You have four external pockets for that, out of which stuff like scarves should nonchalantly hang! Sprezza what-ya-ma-call-it! 



> *ASK ANDY UPDATE:* Looking for more information about this topic? Be sure to check out all of our articles about Barbour Jackets here!


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## jamgood (Feb 8, 2006)

The Barbour I outgrew, horizontally, was acquired from the distributor when it was located somewhere in mid Virginia, or was it N.H.?, sometime in the late '70s or early '80s. Perhaps it was the Land Rover distributor which used to be located in N.H. 

Anyways, it predated the zipper ring pull of later Barbours and I think they had just changed from bright brass to dark anodized popper toppers. It never had a pin. No free tin, then. I know how to tell the age of mine by the receipt archived somewhere in the musty, dusty files.

I know someone who, while browsing a Saks Off 5th store a recent September, detected a familiar scent before espying the source. Bought all 7 of various Barbours on a rack. They had $395 Saks retail price tags. The Off 5th price was $49.9? each and he had a 15% discount coupon. eBayed them the next month for about $200 each.

Uncle Ralphie's fake Barbour (from earlier in the decade) in distressed leather replicating the appearance of 20 years of bottom-of-the-bog-soaked waxed cotton. One digresses, sawray. I'll go away now.


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## phyrpowr (Aug 30, 2009)

^^This is why I always considered RL a joke played on wannabes


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## The Rambler (Feb 18, 2010)

In this vein, I wish I could figure out how to post pictures on this forum, I'd show off my old brown Border, with a tear on the upper arm, in the shape of a horse's mouth, inexpertly but securely stiched up by me.


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## Pink and Green (Jul 22, 2009)

I was always told to leave the pin off. Conventional wisdom was it was showing off.

Of course this was before they started _stitching the logo on the pocket_.


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

Pink and Green said:


> I was always told to leave the pin off. Conventional wisdom was it was showing off.
> 
> Of course this was before they started _stitching the logo on the pocket_.


See now, that must be an American thing. Because as a young man growing up in London in the 70s, I rarely saw a Barbour WITHOUT the collar badge.


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

jamgood said:


> The Border I outgrew, horizontally, was acquired from the distributor when it was located somewhere in mid Virginia, or was it N.H.?, sometime in the late '70s or early '80s. Perhaps it was the Land Rover distributor which used to be located in N.H. Anyways, it predated the zipper ring pull of later Barbours and I think they had just changed from bright brass to dark anodized popper toppers. It never had a pin. No free tin, then. I know how to tell the age of mine by the receipt archived somewhere in the musty, dusty files.
> 
> I know someone who, while browsing a Saks Off 5th store a recent September, detected a familiar scent before espying the source. Bought all 7 of various Barbours on a rack. They had $395 Saks retail price tags. The Off 5th price was $49.9? each and he had a 15% discount coupon. eBayed them the next month for about $200 each.
> 
> Uncle Ralphie's fake Barbour (from earlier in the decade) in distressed leather replicating the appearance of 20 years of bottom-of-the-bog-soaked waxed cotton. One digresses, sawray. I'll go away now.


No, don't go away. This is the kind of stuff I love reading. And this is what this thread is for....digress away man, digress! 
My Bedale has the copper popper tops and brass receivers as well. The newer models with those black ones and that hairy
looking material just don't look like Barbours in my opinion.


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

The Rambler said:


> In this vein, I wish I could figure out how to post pictures on this forum, I'd show off my old brown Border, with a tear on the upper arm, in the shape of a horse's mouth, inexpertly but securely stiched up by me.


Save photo from your camera/phone on to your desktop -easiest quickest is to remove the memory card & put it in the slot on your PC. Then load the photo up to Photobucket for example, then copy the interent URL that Photobocket creates for the image, then paste it in here.


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

phyrpowr said:


> ^^This is why I always considered RL a joke played on wannabes


It's certainly not my cup of tea anyway. The belt I can only assume is an attempt to make the jacket look like an International.


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

Okay kids, go and fetch all your Barbours and we'll do some dating.

On the barcode label, below the black Barbour company label and above the Barbour care label, this one:









A100 is the model code for the orignal Bedale, not the newer one which for some backwards-understanding-of-English reason they decided to call "classic".

As I understand it this bar code is the general company and product info. For example all Bedales or maybe even Barbours start with 25077....I'm not 100% sure on that.

Anyway lift that bar code label and you'll see another barcode on the back of it, above the washing instructions.

Now THIS bar code is the interesting one, this is the one that tells us all about the actual jacket it is attached to i.e. it is the jacket's serial number in a way - age, colour, size and so on. This was what I was told by the Barbour salesman at Scotia in London.

The first two numbers in that barcode are the year of production, so
for my current Bedale 0002514-210-0284. The 00 = 2000.

That's it, it's as easy as that. No more barcode secrets for today though.


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

I don't care who wears a badge; it looks pretentious. Rather like a Cambridge College scarf with the name and badge of the College on it. Anybody who is worthwhile will know what it is by its colours, if that is one's intention; if they don't, there's no point in advertising it.


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## Nick (Jan 16, 2005)

There was a great quote in The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook (1982) from a customer letter sent to the mfr of Husky (but it could have just as easily been sent to Barbour):

"Please never change the poppers on your jackets, because I know just who I can talk to on trains."

Sadly I think the original Husky company has gone the way of all flesh . . . no Sloanes left? Hunting bans?


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

Chouan said:


> I don't care who wears a badge; it looks pretentious. Rather like a Cambridge College scarf with the name and badge of the College on it. Anybody who is worthwhile will know what it is by its colours, if that is one's intention; if they don't, there's no point in advertising it.


hhm..you think the royal family look pretentious then? 
But, I think you're applying to much weight to the badge. Assuming that people are trying to show off. 
It is just a badge on an article of clothing advertising the brand.
Do you cut the crocodiles off your Lacoste or the eagles off your Pringle or the laurel wreaths off your Fred Perry or the Union Jack off your Henry Lloyd or the 3 stripes off your Adidas?

This is no different, it just happens to be a metal badge rather than a stiched on one. That said they do now have stiched in badges on the
pocket.


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

"hhm..you think the royal family look pretentious then? "
At times, yes. If they're wearing pretentious clothing when "off duty".

"It is just a badge on an article of clothing advertising the brand.
Do you cut the crocodiles off your Lacoste or the eagles off your Pringle or the laurel wreaths off your Fred Perry or the Union Jack off your Henry Lloyd or the 3 stripes off your Adidas? "

A detachable badge can be detached. The badge tells observers that one is wearing a particular garment, worn for a particular reason, and is, of itself, a symbol of a particular attitude and culture. It is unnecessary, because anybody who owns a Barbour can recognize a Barbour; the badge just looks.....pretentious!

I don't much care for embroidered logos, but they can't easily be removed.
In any case, I won't wear Pringle because of the logo, neither do I wear Fred Perry, or Henri Lloyd or Adidas.


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

Fair enough, each to his own. :icon_smile:


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## jamgood (Feb 8, 2006)

Chouan said:


> I don't care who wears a badge; it looks pretentious. Rather like a Cambridge College scarf with the name and badge of the College on it. Anybody who is worthwhile will know what it is by its colours, if that is one's intention; if they don't, there's no point in advertising it.


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## Epaminondas (Oct 19, 2009)

Chouan said:


> I don't care who wears a badge; it looks pretentious. . . Anybody who is worthwhile will know what it is by its colours, if that is one's intention; if they don't, there's no point in advertising it.


Agreed, and women - apparently regardless of whether they are queen or princess - are always more likely to wear/flaunt logos so, I'm unimpressed with what QEII or Princess Anne do as an argument for wearing it. The badge is removable for a reason. I've never considered leaving it on any of mine and, if fact, the only people I've ever seen wear their Barbours with the badge on have been women.


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

This might be another one of those US v Europe things again. In my travels in Europe I've seen many Barbours on men with the badge on. From London to Paris to Prague to Hamburg to Copenhagen to Amsterdam to Brussels to Frankfurt to Oslo to Stockholm. More importantly and more telling on a daily basis when I worked in Chelsea.

Maybe it's another one of those false American "rules" about what not to do with Anglo clothing, for fear of being considered a fake.

Personally then, I think that that is trying too hard to be genuine. Too hard in fact as to end up being fake for worrying about it to much, especially when the evidence in London and elsewhere suggests that many many people wear their Barbours with the badge on.


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## CuffDaddy (Feb 26, 2009)

IIRC, the badge that came with my Barbour jacket came in a little celophane pouch in a pocket. It wouldn't ever occur to me to personally put an _additional_ branding label on a piece of clothing, particularly when the identity of the clothing is already _abundantly_ obvious.

No objection to others doing otherwise, just wouldn't even occur to me. I think I probably assumed that it was intended to put on some _other_ object that wasn't already Barbour-branded.


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

CuffDaddy said:


> I think I probably assumed that it was intended to put on some _other_ object that wasn't already Barbour-branded.


You've just given me an idea, Barbour badge on front pocket of jeans! :icon_smile_wink:


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## Mad Hatter (Jul 13, 2008)

So, do people wear G-9s with the badge pin-or is that just a Barbour quirk?


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

Mad Hatter said:


> So, do people wear G-9s with the badge pin-or is that just a Barbour quirk?


I didn't know G9s came with a pin. HOWEVER, both Fred Perry Harringtons and FP Crombies come with a metal Fred Perry laurel wreath collar/lapel badge that I've never seen any mod, rudeboy or skinhead remove.


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## Mad Hatter (Jul 13, 2008)

I got one a few years back; one of the English-made models. I think some of them-maybe the regular line-are made overseas. So I don't know if that's peculiar to the English jackets or a relatively new thing for all lines. Just an enamel pin with the Baracuta logo wrapped in cellophane.

I never affixed it, but like the fact that it is something one can opt in or out of.


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

Mad Hatter said:


> I got one a few years back; one of the English-made models. I think some of them-maybe the regular line-are made overseas. So I don't know if that's peculiar to the English jackets or a relatively new thing for all lines. Just an enamel pin with the Baracuta logo wrapped in cellophane.
> 
> I never affixed it, but like the fact that it is something one can opt in or out of.


Interesting, now with such an unusal brand I'd have put that on the collar immediately.....and if you want that pin to go to a good home...to grace perhaps the collar of a Merc Harrington..... :icon_smile_wink:


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## Pr B (Jan 8, 2009)

*Breathe vs. Not?*

Here's an idea:

I love my Barbour Border for its handsome looks and all the pockets. However, I'm not fond that it doesn't breathe at all, that it smells, and that it is heavy. I do not need it for its waterproofness, I have more appropriate outerwear for that.

Barbour warns vigorously against washing the jacket in a washing machine, lest lose its wax and its ability to be rewaxed. At that point, you have a waxless cotton jacket.

Hmm, that would seem to solve all my complaints! Comments? Would "dewaxing" it thus weaken the material?


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## icky thump (Feb 2, 2008)

The Barbour Border is a great winter commuter coat. Yes commuting a far cry from shooting fowl, but we've evolved a bit. 

Here's what I like: it's long enough to cover a suit but short enough to be comfortable when worn while sitting on a train or driving. It breathes enough not to overheat the wearer when worn indoors but protects against the elements enough to be worn in the rain, cold and light snow. 

I also have a Sanyo microfiber rain coat that is light and warm as well as a cashmere topcoat for when it's below zero.


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## Guest (Nov 8, 2021)

I recently bought my second Barbour here in Spain. In fact it was my wife who bought it because she understood that I could not wear any more my decoloured and teared first Barbour. And I loved it as it was. Now I have found the pin/badge in a plastic bag in a pocket. To be honest, it fall to the floor when taking out my keys. After reading all the opinions above I must say that I was divided 50% to put the pin on the collar (if the tradition was so in the 70’s) and 50% to keep it in a box (to avoid being pretentious). Finally I have decided to put it in the collar. Spain is becoming a communist country and it needs a pretentious shaking!!!


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## richard warren (Dec 10, 2015)

Pr B said:


> *Breathe vs. Not?*
> 
> Here's an idea:
> 
> ...


I washed one several years ago to get rid of the smell. It faded a bit and shrink the sleeves a little, softened, and lost the smell. I wouldn't have recommended it ten years ago because of the sleeves, but now too short sleeves are de rigueur, so if you've still got it got for it.

As to a pin, I recommend throwing it away...I've been known to cut the tags off of Levi's and scratch the "Rayban" off of shades with a penny.

Going communist sounds like the definition of a pretensious shaking.


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## medhat (Jan 15, 2006)

Guest-433449 said:


> I recently bought my second Barbour here in Spain. In fact it was my wife who bought it because she understood that I could not wear any more my decoloured and teared first Barbour. And I loved it as it was. Now I have found the pin/badge in a plastic bag in a pocket. To be honest, it fall to the floor when taking out my keys. After reading all the opinions above I must say that I was divided 50% to put the pin on the collar (if the tradition was so in the 70's) and 50% to keep it in a box (to avoid being pretentious). Finally I have decided to put it in the collar. Spain is becoming a communist country and it needs a pretentious shaking!!!


I'd put the pin in a box, it'll get lost otherwise and yes, it is kinda pretentious. As far as washing, it's correct that Barbour believes it to be a no-no, and I'm wondering if simply sending the jacket in for rewaxing may alleviate the off-putting odor issue. That or Febreeze the heck out of the cloth portions and air dry. As far as the shrinking sleeves, I think sleeve length was a well known bugaboo with older Barbours, and that's a cut difference between Barbours from before/after around 2005-2010. The modern Bedale "classic" I have nowadays is "normal" as far as sleeve length is concerned.


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## Vecchio Vespa (Dec 3, 2011)

A wet bird dog is a great way to address the smell.

;0)


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## Guest (Nov 27, 2021)

* "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!" *


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## challer (Sep 4, 2008)

Barbour will happily replace the sleeves with ones of any length. Has this done with my Border to great effect


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## dr.butcher (May 28, 2014)

Just learnt what that pin is for! It sat in that plastic bag in a box for over a decade till I finally tossed it last week. You don’t need a pin to identify a Barbour and logos are always pretentious.


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