Trench coats have become such a staple in the male fashion repertoire throughout the years it is difficult to imagine a time when the great shopping boulevards were without them. Perhaps the first men's shops to offer them in the U.S. were on New York's Madison Avenue: F.R. Tripler and Brooks Brothers, where the garments can still be purchased to this day. The attached vintage print ad was commissioned by F.R. Trippler for a gabardine trench coat as well as the sale of private-purchase "flexible protective body armor". The body armor appears to have been modeled after a German design. The reader may be disappointed to learn that the Madison Avenue boutiques no longer offer body armor.
Click here to read more about the history of the trench coat.
