Burberry (Prorsum) Harrington Jacket - Info?

retro ruth

Administrator
Staff member
Originally posted by @Wally and recreated by Admin

Hello all.

While on a recent visit to London, I purchased a vintage Burberry (Prorsum) Harrington jacket. The salesman said he guessed it might be from the 90s... but I don't think Prorsum became a line until 2000.

The jacket is unlined/unstructured, which seems uncommon of what little I know of Burberry jackets. In one photo, I stuffed the armhole with a shirt, to visually separate that area from where my hand can slip behind the unlined front of the jacket.

When I bought it, it was rather dark and evenly soiled/grungy all over, like it had absorbed soot. The texture was even a little rough, so I thought it might be linen. When I got it home, I soaked it in OxiClean and gave it a wash, which really worked nicely! It's brighter and softer, and am now guessing it's made of cotton. Oddly, I can't find a materials label anywhere.

I can only assume the 'Serantes, Bilbao' logo identifies with the textile mill, but I can't find any such mill in my online search attempts. The Spanish blurb below it, Google translates to "Do not iron the stitch of this garment". Never heard of a garment you can iron anywhere except where the stitches are.

Hidden under the main Burberry patch (only 3 sides stitched down) is a blank Burberry size tag - another mystery! I'm a medium, and this jacket happens to fit me very well.

Lots of idiosyncrasies about this jacket. Can anyone shed some light on this and provide a little info or context?

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The salesman said he guessed it might be from the 90s... but I don't think Prorsum became a line until 2000.
Prorsum on the flag has been there forever I think. We have examples in the label resource goin back to the 40s, and maybe the 30s though those images aren't so clear.

Also the S on Burberrys was dropped in the late 90s AFAIK, so it can't be later than that.

The label looks most like the 80s ones. What's interesting to me is the Spanish text in the border of the main label, at the bottom right - ESPANA and some numbers. I haven't seen that before.
 
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