Loden
The great cloth of the Alps — boiled wool that turns weather, and the houses that made it: Lodenfrey, Steinbock, Schneiders.
The cloth of the Alps.
Loden began in the Tyrol as a hard-wearing homespun — wool woven loosely, then fulled: boiled and beaten until the fibres matt into a dense, weather-turning felt. Farmers and foresters wore it against alpine winters for centuries before it became a mark of country elegance across Austria, Bavaria and far beyond.
Two kinds are worth knowing. Walkloden is the classic boiled cloth — smooth, firm, almost windproof. Strichloden is brushed into a long, water-shedding nap; Lodenfrey of Munich wove the first truly water-repellent Strichloden in 1872. The traditional loden coat — the Hubertus, with its back vent, throat latch and often a caped shoulder — is cut for movement and for weather.
The houses worth knowing.
- 01Lodenfrey — Munich The Bavarian house (from 1842) that wove the first water-repellent Strichloden in 1872, and carried the Hubertus coat far beyond the Alps.
- 02Moessmer — South Tyrol A Puster Valley mill from 1894, among the oldest in the Alps — weaving loden through the whole cycle, from raw wool to finished cloth prized well beyond its own coats.
- 03Steinbock — Tyrol A Tyrolean loden house from Telfs, known for soft alpaca-and-wool blends, long-pile walk cloth, stag-horn buttons and leather trims.
- 04Schneiders — Salzburg The Salzburg outerwear house (from 1946) that became the loden maker par excellence — maker of the Hubertus and the waxed Dirtl trench, long sought by vintage collectors in Italy.
- 05Habsburg — Austria An Austrian country house long regarded for high-quality loden and alpine tailoring.
- 06Giesswein — Tyrol A Tyrolean maker working wool and loden in the alpine tradition.
"Loden was made to be worn for thirty winters. Most of it still has twenty left."— Anemoia Vestiaire, on loden
Wool, boiled to weather.
Loden is, before anything, a material — so the most useful reading sits in our tailoring and trench notes, where the properties that make a heavy wool coat behave are set out in full.
We assess each loden piece on the cloth, the cut and the honest condition — the density of the boiled wool, the buttons and trims, and the maker’s label where present — and we describe precisely what the garment shows.
We make no claim of exact dating or certification beyond what the piece itself carries.
Full measurements and condition are on each product page. Where a maker’s label is present, we record it as found.Why vintage loden
holds.
Boiled loden was never disposable. A good alpine coat from earlier decades is often heavier and more densely fulled than the same money buys new — and it has already proven it lasts. The classic houses are quietly collected, yet vintage loden remains one of the most under-priced ways to own a genuinely serious winter coat.
Buying vintage here is buying proven cloth, honestly described.
Loden in the archive.
