7 Terrific Barbour Collaborations That Somehow Haven’t Sold Out Yet
Only a select few items—a Le Creuset dutch oven, a Patek Philippe if you’re lucky—become family heirlooms the second you buy them. A Barbour jacket is one of them. The classic Barbour—corduroy collar, waxed cotton exterior, zipper-front, massive bellows pockets—is not just weatherproof, but trend-proof also. This is partly because it somehow looks great with whatever’s in style, from slim suits to baggy jeans.
Now for years, there’s only really been one decision to make about which Barbour is right for you: The boxy, hip-length Bedale, or the longer, traditional Beaufort. But suddenly, everything has changed. This fall, the British heritage label has gone on the offensive, partnering with not one, not two, but seven of GQ’s preferred menswear purveyors—Kaptain Sunshine, J.Crew, Baracuta, Todd Snyder, Paul Smith, Levi’s, and Asket. Each of those designers has since released a Barbour jacket (or three) that speaks specifically to their customer’s sensibilities.
All of this means you now have a few more options to choose from. Below, we’ve broken down the differences between each drop.
Kaptain Sunshine
Shinsuke Kojima, the founder and designer of Japan’s Americana-leaning Kaptain Sunshine, has long been an avid collector of Barbour jackets. For his brand’s collaboration, Kojima visited the Barbour HQ to explore its astonishing archive. What resulted is a whimsical reimagining of the Transport Jacket—an otherwise serious-looking piece, first released in 1999.
The original jacket features an almost-cropped length, waxed-cotton outer shell, two-way zip, welt pockets, and a classic cotton tartan lining. All of this remains, but Kaptain Sunshine has added a colourful, detachable wool hood, leather accents, and generous corduroy collar. It’s Japanese precision meets British grit—aye aye, captain.
Paul Smith
Paul Smith—Sir Paul Smith, that is—needs little introduction. By choosing to rework the Bedale, the knight of the realm has taken on a true Barbour classic, but like everything Paul Smith, there’s suddenly color and quirky patterns. Never has the Bedale been so eccentric. And hey, if you’re into it, the collaboration also includes fisherman knits, a tee printed with a cow, and this heart-warming video celebrating the partnership.
Baracuta
Thought the Barbour collaboration with Paul Smith was peak British? Take a gander at the brand’s ongoing partnership with Baracuta and shuffle your ranking accordingly. For a few seasons now, the waxed canvas experts have joined forces with the name behind the most iconic Harrington jacket in menswear, yielding expectedly terrific riffs on the silhouettes both labels do best. Their third go-around launched just this week, and it includes enough hardy outerwear to clothe the staff of a sprawling countryside estate—plus a grip of co-branded basics for anyone hibernating at a slightly-less-palatial home.
Todd Snyder
Now comes the American wave, including New York’s Todd Snyder, who focused on upgrading Barbour for the mean city streets. Snyder’s take on the shorter Transport Jacket reworks the original mountain biking-inspired design, keeping its waxed cotton outer, but inside blending a classic tartan lining (designed by Edinburgh’s Kinloch Anderson in the early 2000s) with a waterproof nylon layer—no raindrops breaking through the cotton here. In true city slicker style, the jacket also has a new, secret phone pocket hidden in the placket. That’s New York smart.
J.Crew
If the above shorter take isn’t for you, J.Crew’s approach—reworking their best-selling barn jacket in Barbour fabrics—is looser, sexier, and something you might see Jeremy Allen White brooding in somewhere. It’s the kind of jacket you start wearing one day in November, and don’t retire until one day in April. Lined in Barbour’s signature tartan, it takes the one thing J.Crew’s barn jacket wasn’t ever great at—getting wet—and solves that problem, instantly.
Levi’s
This is a fun one: Unlike the collaborations above, Levi’s didn’t rework a Barbour design. It used Barbour fabrics on its own silhouettes. Ever wondered what a Barbour denim jacket would look like? The answer is here, and it’s good. There’s just one issue: The collaboration was so hot, the jackets have, for now, sold out. But the accessories are still available, and they’re great too—just notice how you can now get a waxed Barbour baseball cap, with the iconic red Levi’s tab.
Arket
Some more tough news: Arket’s Barbour collaboration doesn’t ship to the US. But we’re including it here because we felt you’d like to see it anyway, and hey, maybe you’ve got a friend across the pond who could sort something out? For its turn, the Stockholm-based brand focused on what its DNA has in common with Barbour’s—specifically, a “deep, mutual connection to the landscapes we live and work in.” The resulting vast collection includes a dog coat and rain boots, but also a waxed jacket expanded to a wider Scandi cut, and a quilted jacket that just begs to be layered with other lightweight winter essentials.
