Bar-bour Hackney chic, have you any cool?

By Hackney Citizen | Friday 12 March 2010 at 15:53
Traditional manufacturer Barbour, best known for its practical rural and outdoor clothing, is now officially cool. Forget that it recently opened a flagship store in trendy Soho, that celebrity handbag designer Anya Hindmarch is set to design a range of its jackets or that it is stocked in the achingly hip Dover Street Market; Barbour’s new-found status as a fashionable brand is because it is now being worn by those that ‘matter’.
It would appear that the latest trend among celebrities and the fashion conscious is to contrast Barbour’s functional wax jackets with their skinny jeans and asymmetrical bodycon dresses. While the celebrities have been wearing the more recent collections, the preference on the streets is for something battered and bruised. The trend has even acquired its own nickname: the Hackney Farmer.
So crucial is the Hackney Farmer look to Barbour’s recent success that Gary Burnand, its director of Global Marketing & Strategy, admitted “we are aware that there has been a resurgence in the popularity of our brand and that some parts of the press have reported that the interest has come from […] Hackney”.
It’s not the first time that Hackney’s hipsters have had a major trend named after them. The local artistes were credited with starting the Hoxton Fin hairstyle that dominated men’s barbering at the beginning of the noughties, but while the Mohawk-style hairdo may just have been a natural look for those whose jobs did not demand a smart and professional short-back-and-sides cut, the origins  of the Hackney Farmer are less obvious.
With the full effect of gentrification felt only in small pockets of the borough, you wouldn’t expect clothing that is most readily associated with posh country folk going hunting and fishing to be a fashion staple – especially when the look is perpetrated by the fashion-conscious youth who rarely leave their inner city locales.
Writing in the Guardian, Andy Beckett suggests that the Hackney Farmer uniform might be indicative of an increasing acceptance of all things posh, a general trend towards so-called “Tory chic”. However, local fashion and lifestyle blogger Steve Hamilton of rantinnravin.wordpress.com believes that the motive behind the trend is somewhat less contrived.
“People don’t think about class so much theses days, certainly not in fashion terms anyway. Nobody’s sitting there thinking ‘I’m wearing a Barbour jacket’. If I wore one, I certainly wouldn’t be making a political statement”.
Hamilton lives in London Fields, where, he states, “most of the local residents are from middle class backgrounds anyway, working as graphic designers”. He feels that they are merely indulging in a style that they have grown up with, in a raiding-dad’s-wardrobe-for-new-things-to-wear kind of way. He admits that in the past the middle classes in similar circumstances might have made social statements with their fashion choices to avoid the taboo that went with their privileged background, but now “people don’t feel the need to distance themselves from it”.
He acknowledges that he appreciates the cut of Hackney’s sartorial jib, yet questions whether the trend is driven more by celebrity endorsement than socio-political motivations or grass roots street style.
“Hackney is always where they think fashions start from, but the first people who started to wear Barbour jackets again would have been someone in the public eye, like Kate Moss or Sienna Miller. Very few fashions are really born from the streets”.
Barbour are certainly aware of the power of celebrity in maximising the exposure of the brand. Burnand confirmed that “sometimes we may choose to work with well known people if they are good brand ambassadors”.
Regardless of what is driving the Hackney Farmer, Barbour is not shying away from the association – “we are delighted that a new audience is discovering Barbour as a brand of choice”. He does not seem to envisage the kind of problems Burberry had a few years ago when a new audience embraced its own signature pieces.
In any event, whether calculated marketing ploy or genuine street style, no doubt the number of urban farmers in east London will continue to rise – until Hackney spawns another new trend of course.
Doing the Hackney Farmer

Doing the Hackney Farmer

Traditional manufacturer Barbour, best known for its practical rural and outdoor clothing, is now officially cool.

Forget that it recently opened a flagship store in trendy Soho, that celebrity handbag designer Anya Hindmarch is set to design a range of its jackets or that it is stocked in the achingly hip Dover Street Market; Barbour’s new-found status as a fashionable brand is because it is now being worn by those that ‘matter’.

It would appear that the latest trend among celebrities and the fashion conscious is to contrast Barbour’s functional wax jackets with their skinny jeans and asymmetrical bodycon dresses.

While the celebrities have been wearing the more recent collections, the preference on the streets is for something battered and bruised. The trend has even acquired its own nickname: the Hackney Farmer.

So crucial is the Hackney Farmer look to Barbour’s recent success that Gary Burnand, its director of Global Marketing & Strategy, admitted, “We are aware that there has been a resurgence in the popularity of our brand and that some parts of the press have reported that the interest has come from […] Hackney”.

It’s not the first time that Hackney’s hipsters have had a major trend named after them.

The local artistes were credited with starting the Hoxton Fin hairstyle that dominated men’s barbering at the beginning of the noughties, but while the Mohawk-style hairdo may just have been a natural look for those whose jobs did not demand a smart and professional short-back-and-sides cut, the origins  of the Hackney Farmer are less obvious.

With the full effect of gentrification felt only in small pockets of the borough, you wouldn’t expect clothing that is most readily associated with posh country folk going hunting and fishing to be a fashion staple – especially when the look is perpetrated by the fashion-conscious youth who rarely leave their inner city locales.

Writing in the Guardian, Andy Beckett suggests that the Hackney Farmer uniform might be indicative of an increasing acceptance of all things posh, a general trend towards so-called “Tory chic”.

However, local fashion and lifestyle blogger Steve Hamilton of rantinnravin.wordpress.com believes that the motive behind the trend is somewhat less contrived.

“People don’t think about class so much theses days, certainly not in fashion terms anyway. Nobody’s sitting there thinking ‘I’m wearing a Barbour jacket’. If I wore one, I certainly wouldn’t be making a political statement”.

Hamilton lives in London Fields, where, he states, “most of the local residents are from middle class backgrounds anyway, working as graphic designers”.

He feels that they are merely indulging in a style that they have grown up with, in a raiding-dad’s-wardrobe-for-new-things-to-wear kind of way.

He admits that in the past the middle classes in similar circumstances might have made social statements with their fashion choices to avoid the taboo that went with their privileged background, but now “people don’t feel the need to distance themselves from it”.

He acknowledges that he appreciates the cut of Hackney’s sartorial jib, yet questions whether the trend is driven more by celebrity endorsement than socio-political motivations or grass roots street style.

“Hackney is always where they think fashions start from, but the first people who started to wear Barbour jackets again would have been someone in the public eye, like Kate Moss or Sienna Miller. Very few fashions are really born from the streets”.

Barbour are certainly aware of the power of celebrity in maximising the exposure of the brand. Burnand confirmed that “sometimes we may choose to work with well known people if they are good brand ambassadors”.

Regardless of what is driving the Hackney Farmer, Barbour is not shying away from the association – “we are delighted that a new audience is discovering Barbour as a brand of choice”. He does not seem to envisage the kind of problems Burberry had a few years ago when a new audience embraced its own signature pieces.

In any event, whether calculated marketing ploy or genuine street style, no doubt the number of urban farmers in east London will continue to rise – until Hackney spawns another new trend of course.

—

Hackney Farmer – how to get the look

Do wear your Barbour jacket battered and bruised.
The idea is that it looks like you’ve been wearing it to hunt game for several years, even if the reality is that you’ve never left the city. Think charity shop chic.

Don’t accessorise with wellington boots, flat caps, quilted gilets or anything else remotely rural or agricultural. The look is worn slightly ironically, and the idea is not to end up looking like an actual farmer.

Do be prepared to put up with the smell.
Waterproof wax jackets compromise on breathable fibres, meaning that even the least taxing of activities will leave you in a pool of sweat.

Don’t hang about.
Hurry up and embrace the look now. Fashion is fickle, and the next trend is just around the corner.

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