Crombie
The Aberdeen wool house whose cloth clothed British officers — and whose name the dictionary borrowed.
Crombie is a Scottish wool house founded by John Crombie in 1805 at Cothal Mills near Aberdeen, its cloth reaching London and Paris drapers by the 1840s and honored at exhibitions by Queen Victoria and Napoleon III. In WWI, roughly a tenth of British officers' overcoats — the 'British Warm' — were cut from Crombie cloth, and the name became so tied to a certain overcoat that 'Crombie' entered the Oxford English Dictionary.
Aberdeen, 1805. A cloth
that became a word.
John Crombie founded a woollen mill at Cothal Mills, near Aberdeen, in 1805. Believing his cloth among the finest in Britain, he built a trade that by the 1840s reached drapers in London and Paris. In the 1850s Crombie cloth was honoured at the great exhibitions — by Queen Victoria in London and Napoleon III in Paris.
For more than 120 years the house wove at the famous Grandholm Mill in Aberdeen. In the First World War, close to a tenth of the overcoats worn by British officers — the coats they called the British Warm — were cut from Crombie cloth. The name grew so bound to a certain overcoat that ‘Crombie’ entered the Oxford English Dictionary.
The marks of the house.
- 01Crombie cloth A dense, finely milled wool — the material tailors reached for to dress officers and noblemen.
- 02The British Warm The short, structured melton officer’s overcoat of the Great War, woven in Crombie cloth.
- 03The Crombie coat The three-quarter, fly-fronted overcoat — often with a velvet collar — that carries the name in everyday speech.
- 04A dictionary name One of the very few clothing houses whose name became a common noun in the OED.
“When a coat becomes a word, the cloth has already made its case.”— Anemoia Vestiaire, on Crombie
Fine wool, milled to last.
Crombie is, at heart, a cloth house — so the most useful reading sits in our tailoring note, where the weight and finish that make an overcoat behave are set out in full.
Why vintage Crombie
holds.
Crombie cloth was woven to outlast its wearer, and the classic covert and British-Warm coats are cut to a template that never dated. Well-kept examples carry heavier, denser wool than most new coats — and they have already lasted.
Vintage is often the way to own the house at its most characterful.
Crombie is empty for now.
Every Crombie piece that comes through the vestiaire is one of one — once it finds a home, the archive is empty until the next one arrives. Leave your email and we'll write the moment we have another.
Noted — we'll email you the moment Crombie returns to the archive.
About Crombie.
Why is 'Crombie' in the dictionary?
Crombie cloth became so closely associated with a specific style of overcoat — the three-quarter, fly-fronted coat often with a velvet collar — that 'Crombie' entered the Oxford English Dictionary as a common noun for that garment, one of very few clothing houses to achieve this.
What was the British Warm?
The British Warm was the short, structured melton officer's overcoat of the First World War. Close to a tenth of the overcoats worn by British officers during the war were cut from Crombie cloth.
When was Crombie founded?
John Crombie founded a woollen mill at Cothal Mills near Aberdeen in 1805. By the 1840s his cloth reached drapers in London and Paris, and in the 1850s it was honored at the great exhibitions by both Queen Victoria in London and Napoleon III in Paris.
Is vintage Crombie worth buying?
Crombie cloth was woven to outlast its wearer, and the classic covert and British-Warm coat styles are cut to a template that never dated. Well-kept vintage examples carry heavier, denser wool than most new coats and have already proven their longevity.