What Is Waxed Canvas? A 101 Guide to the Tough-as-Nails Spring Jacket Material

John Barbour initially set out to create industrial wear for the workforce of England’s North East. Fishing, agriculture, ship building, mining—they were all thriving and in need of gear that would protect them from the region’s elements. A lot of heavy rain, a lot of wind for most of the year.

“People only used to own one coat, so it needed to do the job for lots of different things, really” says Bergin. “Today, we are very closely associated with a British country lifestyle, but our start was quite an industrial company.”

Wax canvas was adopted shortly thereafter overseas by farmers and fishermen in Japan, and bushmen and motorcyclists in North America, all who recognized it for its utility. L.L. Bean’s catalogs in the 1920s began providing alternatives to the already standard British brands like Barbour and Belstaff, featuring their own hunting jackets and game bags in waxed cotton and reflecting the material’s global standing in the realm of utilitarian wear.

Field to Fashion

By the 1950s, as makers pivoted production back away from military contracts to consumers, wax canvas also migrated from workwear to wardrobe essential. Queen Elizabeth II was often spotted wearing her Barbour jacket on royal walkabouts at Balmoral, and across the Atlantic, Steve McQueen brought it to the American fashion lexicon from the seat of a motorcycle.

Fifty years later, as the birth of the Internet sent interest in and access to heritage menswear and Americana surging, blogs and brands brought wax canvas back to the mainstream. “Everyone wanted that perfect Barbour,” says Jeremy Smith, co-owner of Standard & Strange, a menswear shop known for high-quality, heritage-inspired goods. “We had just a shitload of clones… Everlane, Taylor Stitch, all those guys were just blasting out wax canvas clones of the classic Belstaff or Barbour. Everyone wanted that gritty, heritage look—but not everyone wanted to deal with the actual material.”

Like the good-for-life material itself, the trend has stuck around. Daniel Craig’s Bond wore a Barbour Beacon jacket in Skyfall, characteristically blending British grit with modern tailoring, and more recently Pedro Pascal displayed its apocalyptic steez in The Last of Us.

How to Care for Waxed Canvas

Tough stuff still deserves care, and in the case of waxed canvas, if you want it to last, there’s a process. “You can’t just chuck a waxed garment in the washing machine to clean it,” says Smith. “It’s almost like taking care of a pair of boots. You wouldn’t put a pair of nice boots in the washing machine.”

All waxed canvas will dry and wear over time, leaving the surface looking dull or patchy. When that happens, consider rewaxing—either at home with a tin and some patience, or by taking it to a pro. “If you warm the wax up properly, it’s a little bit messy—you need to clear up after yourselves, but it’s not hard,” says Bergin. “Personally, I couldn’t be bothered. I just send it in.”

Annual rewaxing may be called for if you’re wearing it a lot or putting it through the paces with extreme weather or physical work, but done right, this simple maintenance ritual can dramatically extend the life of a jacket. “If you take care of it, you rewax it regularly, you’ll have a jacket for life,” says Bergin.

But perhaps the most beautiful thing about waxed canvas is that if you don’t care for it, that’s okay too. Some prefer to let the canvas go dry and develop a chalky, broken-in finish that shows its history.

Waxed canvas is not perfect. It stiffens in the cold, requires maintenance or it’ll wear drastically, and will never, ever pack down into your carry on. But your great great grandfather wasn’t fussed about carrying on and didn’t need any tech fabric. He wanted to stay dry and warm and needed a coat that he could rely on day after day even after it got oily or muddy or frayed.

And unless you’re working harder than he was, it’ll probably still work for you too.

Our Favorite Waxed Canvas Jackets

Time to start breaking in some waxed canvas of your own. Here are four stellar options to get you started—and don’t miss our full list of the best waxed canvas jackets for even more.