Barbour jacket

"The brute covers himself, the rich man and the fop adorn themselves, the elegant man dresses!"

-Honore de Balzac

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Leyburn
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Wed Aug 22, 2007 12:14 pm

I'm in the process of purchasing my first Barbour jacket and I was informed by a friend that they shrink a little over time. I felt that perhaps he had enlarged a little over time and it my not be the jacket at fault. I didn't challenge him on this, not wanting to be in-polite. Can anyone confirm if i should be wary of jacket shrinkage?
Will

Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:06 pm

They may shrink but it's never been noticeable to me.
uppercase
Posts: 1769
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Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:47 pm

Try on the Barbour over a sports coat or bulky sweater: I went up one size for theBarbour tofit properly.

It is cotton and if it is soaked, it may shrink but I've not noticed it.

Otherwise, I find that the coat wears clammy, is not particularly insultating and I wonder why it ever succeeded as an outdoors sporting coat....if I was in the market for such a coat again, I would check out Loro Piana's Horsey.
angelo
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Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:02 pm

I'm in the process of purchasing my first Barbour jacket and I was informed by a friend that they shrink a little over time. ......... Can anyone confirm if i should be wary of jacket shrinkage?
Leyburn,
I have been wearing Barbour jackets since many years; they do not shrink over the time but,even with a proper and annualy based care ,they crease; in addition some little holes and tears ,after few years , start to affect the cotton tissue mainly in points of frictions such as the sleeves. In my opinion however such signs of wearing make these jackets more interesting as they give a beautiful vintage looking.
Guest

Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:33 pm

I have never noticed shrinkage. But you have to decide how you are going to wear it: they are sized to be worn by themselves. If you want to wear them over jackets, then you have to try them on until you find the size that fits. This is not obvious: I got a Cordura Barbour jacket that fits over a Barbour fleece jacket (I specifically made this request), and the thing is still not comfortable over a dress jacket though it is several sizes too large.
masco
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Fri Aug 24, 2007 6:26 pm

I have owned several for many years, and have even had to send off for re-proofing. I have never noticed any shrinkage. Perhaps the buddy that mention it has grown? :)
Leyburn
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Tue Sep 04, 2007 12:48 pm

Thank you very much for your advice. I have purchased the jacket and did indeed opt for a size larger than my usual. I'm very pleased with it so far although the ravages of winter are not yet upon us! Apologies for my misspelling of Impolite in my original post, I think there must have been a little shrinkage in my brain on that particular day. :)
Costi
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Tue Sep 04, 2007 3:52 pm

The Barbour worn over a fleece detachable lining is useful in winter when it snows and it is not very cold (which is usually true when it does snow). In cold weather however (below -1) it gets uncomfortably cold and rigid. Perhaps you live in a warm climate and have warm winters...
Cantabrigian
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Tue Sep 04, 2007 7:44 pm

Don't know if it's an issue but you can get the sleeves shortened on the wax cotton jackets.

I also decided to go one size up and definitely needed the sleeves shortened a bit.
Leyburn
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Tue Sep 04, 2007 9:29 pm

At first i thought of getting the sleeves shortened but as I have worn it the creasing seems to have raised them just enough. I'm not sure how this will work out in the long term but it is good to know that this is an option.

One of the reasons I purchased the jacket is because of the after sales service offered by Barbour.
Guest

Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:58 pm

Cantagbrian, how and where do you get the sleeves shortened?
Cantabrigian
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Tue Sep 04, 2007 11:11 pm

brescd01 wrote:Cantagbrian, how and where do you get the sleeves shortened?
I took the jacket to the Peter Elliot Barbour store in NY - they never asked where I had bought it (not there) and I never pretended I got it there. They supposedly sent it to the service centerin Maine (I believe).

It's a standard repair option on the form available on their website so you could probably send it to Barbour directly if you didn't want to go through the PE Barbour store.
TCN
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Mon Oct 08, 2007 8:47 pm

I have pretty extensive long term experience with a lot of Barbours. They won't shrink on their own, HOWEVER, if you send them in for factory reproofing, where there's a fair amount of heat applied to the entire jacket, there are reports that they do shrink up a tad bit. This seems to be a bigger problem for the New Zealand made Barbours than the English ones.

Something I never see weekenders do to their Barbours that shooters tend to do, is send the coat to Barbour to have all of the edges covered in leather piping. I have found that if you're hard on a post-1990 Barbour (when I roughly think quality dropped off a bit), you'll get a fair amount of fraying. The leather trim stops that, and actually looks pretty cool to boot.
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