Famously, we Brits are obsessed by the weather.
On average, we spend over five months of our life
talking about nothing else.
It's no surprise then, that we spend nearly £1 billion on outdoor
clothing every year.
You're going to need that. Oh, no.
And few items work as hard to keep us dry as the humble waxed jacket.
It's an icon of British style.
Famous worldwide.
The jackets made in this factory are exported to more than
40 countries across the globe.
Right.
You're putting me off.
I'm Gregg Wallace.
You can feel the power of it.
And tonight I'll be following the blistering work-out...
That's obviously supposed to happen, right? Yes.
..cotton goes through to become a coat.
This is my stand.
That's your stand.
And here's me moleskin pocket. Yeah.
I'm Cherry Healey and I'm learning the dark art of defying a deluge.
That is my waterproof jacket? Yeah.
That's breathable? That's it.
And unravelling the technology behind tweed.
I'm hanging on by a thread. Yes.
And historian Ruth Goodman...
Oh, yeah!
..investigates the fishy origins of waxed jackets.
I suppose if you've got waterproof sailcloth hanging around,
it would make enormous sense? Yeah!
Smell that linseed oil!
Come rain or shine, over the next 24 hours,
the people in this factory will stitch together 650 jackets.
Getting through 2,600 metres of fabric
and 25,000 rivets.
Welcome to Inside the Factory.
This is the Barbour factory in South Shields.
A stone's throw from Newcastle upon Tyne.
The guys here know a thing or two about jackets.
Because after all, they've been making them
for 125 years.
More than 150 people cut, stitch and rivet
25 different designs.
This time, we're following production
of one of their best sellers.
The Bedale in sage green.
But before we start making our waxed jackets,
we're going to need a super-size batch of cloth.
And to get that, I'm heading 190 miles north,
to the Scottish city of Dundee...
..to the Halley Stevensons textile mill.
Every week, a lorry arrives here laden with cotton.
Production manager Derek Orr is checking in today's shipment.
You must be Derek? Yep.
Good to meet you. Hi, Gregg.
What is this, please?
This is the roll cutting.
And how much does one of those rolls weigh?
They're around about 160 kilos a roll.
That makes each one about two Gregg Wallaces.
If one of those was rolled out flat, what's the length of cotton?
500 metres.
That's a phenomenal amount.
One roll is enough to make 333 jackets.
And there are 133 of them on board.
Can you show me what you do to that cotton, please? Yes.
Come on, come on. OK. Where do we go?
As the raw cotton enters the mill...
..production of our waxed jackets begins.
Right. Nice and heavy.
Our first stop is a batching machine
that we're loading with our fabric.
This feels stiff to me.
I was expecting this to be like a loose cotton sheet.
This is stiff.
No, it's the starch in the fabric that is making it stiff.
Why add starch?
Just to strengthen the yarn during the weaving process.
Really, what you've got is a tightly woven dense fabric.
Why do you want such a dense weave?
It helps with the strength
of the fabric, durability, and water repellency.
Its thread count is around the same as my bed sheets at home.
Do we have to stand here holding this?
It looks like we're getting in bed together!
Are you all right on that side?
Can you turn the light out now?
There's no time for snoozing.
We need one long length of cotton to make processing easier.
So we're joining five shorter pieces end-to-end with a hefty
hand-held sewing machine.
So, to start, all you do is put your foot on that pedal.
And we're ready to roll.
And press down on it.
It takes three hours to create a giant sheet of cotton
a mile and a half long.
Our fabric needs to be tough enough to make the grade
as a hard wearing jacket.
But I wasn't expecting the process to be such an extreme regime.
That is on fire!
That's obviously supposed to happen, right? Yes.
What's it doing?
We're singeing off any loose fibres.
We're taking off any hairs on the outside of the fabric,
getting rid of them.
Why can't it have a few stray hairs left on it?
Because it will affect the overall appearance of the fabric
and especially after dyeing.
You will see it.
The singeing machine is shooting out gas-fuelled flames
at 2,000 degrees Celsius.
That's hotter than an erupting volcano.
What stops the material itself from burning?
That is flame! Speed.
If we slowed this down, we would burn holes in the cloth.
We would set the fabric alight.
It's whipping through at a carefully calculated one metre a second.
It's got to be a fine balance between burning the hairs off
and setting light to the whole thing?
It is, a lot of it is trial and error, initially.
Have you ever set light to a fabric?
Come on, mate, you must have done.
Erm, yes.
So you're burning all the hairy fibres off it?
That's correct. Give it a smooth finish?
A nice smooth finish, yeah.
How thorough is it?
Almost as smooth as your head!
After its baptism of fire, our newly shorn cloth
immediately gets another scalding.
Don't tell me.
Thermal springs? Almost.
So what is the temperature of that? 95 degrees.
The cotton is plunged into the near boiling water,
then pulled in and out of it seven times.
What are you doing there? We need to get rid of the starch.
We are going to be colouring our cotton and the starch would act
like a barrier to the dye, stopping it from taking evenly.
But detergent alone isn't enough to shift it.
We're adding an enzyme to break down the starch into sugar.
And that makes it easier to remove.
And then you can wash it off?
Then we can wash it off, yes.
The enzyme is called amylase.
It's also present in saliva, where it helps to break down
the starch in our food.
The longer you leave it, the longer you are giving
the enzyme to work.
It takes 45 minutes to dip all our cotton.
And then it's wrapped in polythene for six hours,
so the enzyme can soak in.
I don't think jackets are supposed to be this complicated!
We're on our way to making water resistant coats.
But long before waxed cotton came along,
another very British fabric ruled the roost.
Tweed!
Historically, it was made in the Scottish borders town of Hawick,
where Cherry is learning her warp from her weft.
200 years ago, these streets would have rung with the clattering
sound of mechanical looms
making traditional heavy-duty tweed.
And they would have needed it in weather like this.
Tweed is famous for its diagonal twill pattern
and intricate colour combinations.
But it's the tight weave of this woollen fabric that helps it
to repel water.
Here at Lovat Mill, they produce 125 miles
of this iconic cloth every year.
James Fleming is the operations manager.
Hi, James, lovely to meet you. Hello, good to see you!
That's an impressive great wall of yarn.
The great wall of yarn, it is indeed.
It's amazing, isn't it?
First, these vibrant shades need blending to help create
tweed's complex colours.
My goodness me!
Yeah, OK, so the first stage here,
we're combining two colours together.
What we are wanting to do is to twist those into a combination,
so literally just put a twist on the yarn. Right!
Twisting them together not only creates a new colour,
but also produces a thread that's stronger and denser.
Here, we have four colour components for this tweed.
The blue, the denim, a green and brown or a bronze colour. Yes.
Before these yarns can be woven together,
they're spun onto a drum with a seven-metre circumference.
Holy moley!
Are you trying to smash particles together?
Looks like the Hadron Collider, this is immense!
This is our warping machine.
What is going on in here?
What we're doing is, we're taking our twisted threads
and we're creating the warp.
What is a warp?
The warp are the vertical threads that we need to begin our weaving.
Right, so if we've got our piece of material,
you've got the vertical threads, and then the horizontal threads.
This is doing the vertical threads? Yep.
And that's called a warp? A warp.
Am I with you? You're with me.
I'm hanging on by a thread. Yes.
This warp is made up of 2,000 threads, which will produce a fabric
150 centimetres wide.
The threads are rolled onto this huge bobbin,
called a beam, which will create the vertical pattern.
Now we're ready for them to meet the horizontal weft threads
on this hi-tech rapier loom.
Oh, my goodness me!
Look at that go.
So we have two rapiers at each end which are basically picking up
the weft thread, bringing it into the middle,
they meet in the middle, transfer that thread
across to the other side of the cloth and that's probably
happening about six times a second.
The loom lifts each alternate warp thread,
and a computer-controlled rapier carries the weft thread
through the gap, passing it to another rapier
on the other side.
Then a bar pushes the weft down onto the warp,
and the process repeats, gradually building up our twill pattern.
It's full of colour! It's amazing.
Absolutely jam-packed full of colour.
Yeah, completely, it's just, it bursts out when you get closer
and you see the intricacies of the weave and the colour mixtures.
Ten metres of tweed roll off each hour.
And experts meticulously inspect every centimetre,
repairing any imperfections by hand.
Wow!
There it is, washed, pressed, and ready.
It is a material that is full of history.
It is indeed.
And full of lots of hard work as well.
Full of really, really odd words!
After more than ten and a half hours of production,
our giant roll of plain cotton fabric is about to go
through its own colour transformation.
It's fed by hand into the dyeing machine.
So it's ready to become the classic sage green of the coats
we're making.
Is that the dye?
That's the colour, yes.
Lift that out of there.
You said it was green!
It is green.
That, my friend, is orange.
Yes, because there's three colours in here.
There's a yellow, a red, and a blue.
And that will make green?
Don't mess it up, because no-one is going to want orange jackets!
Right, Gregg, so if you want to take hold of that bag,
and just lower that bag into the tank.
What, empty it in?
No, no, just lower the bag in.
What, the whole bag?
That's it, let go of the plastic.
You can't put the plastic in there! It's dissolvable plastic.
It's the same stuff our dishwasher tablets come wrapped in.
And it dissolves as fast as our eight and a half kilos
of dye powder.
All right, all right, all right.
It is green!
The colour floods into the bottom of the dying machine.
And the cotton is dipped in and out 16 times,
while the liquid heats up to a positively steamy
95 degrees Celsius.
As we disappear!
Mate, if I get picked up by aliens, can you tell my wife I love her?
After a five-hour swim in the hot dye, our cloth needs drying.
First, a giant mangle squeezes out 25% of the moisture.
Then, it travels through a 16-metre long oven,
emerging an hour and a half later perfectly dry.
God, that is red hot!
I can't believe something I considered as delicate as cotton
can actually be treated so strenuously. Yeah.
The colour doesn't look right!
That's too light! No, it's not.
You've ruined it! No, that's plenty dark.
But that doesn't look like the jacket as I know it.
Yeah, because the wax and the oil will change that colour again.
Right, right.
Dyed and dried, the cotton for our coats is finally ready
for its all important wax layer.
Managing director Jimmy Campbell is overseeing this crucial job.
Are you Jimmy?
Gregg. Pleased to meet you, Gregg.
That thing there, this machine, all this just for waxing it?
This is all just waxing, yeah.
We're starting near the top of this 15-metre tall metal monster
with a tank of liquid wax.
This is it.
Is there something in there?
You haven't got a little Nessie hiding in there, have you?
Do you know what that actually reminds me of?
A deep fat fryer. It's a bit like that.
It looks like the chip shop. It does!
So we hold to the wax in here about 95 degrees centigrade.
Is that enough to melt it and use it?
Yes, it allows it to be applied easier.
In here, there's around 1,900 litres.
Enough to cover all 2,500 metres of our cotton.
What wax is it?
It's a combination of three compounds.
We've got a petroleum jelly, so petroleum jelly is like lip balm
type chemical.
A paraffin wax. Like your candle wax.
Then a refined oil.
Refined oil like you put in your car? Yeah.
It's a blend designed to maximise the water resistance and strength
of the finished jacket.
The hot oily wax is pumped into a bath.
And the cotton is dunked in, just once, for three seconds.
So that's just come out of the wax bath.
Wow!
OK, now that is certainly the right colour.
That's beginning to look like the jacket? Yeah, it is, yeah.
Do you know how much wax has gone on to that cotton?
Yeah, so that's 200 gram cotton, and we're adding about 100g
of wax over that. Really? Yeah.
So a third of the jacket is wax?
Yeah. Is your wax? That's correct, yeah.
And is that what keeps the rain out?
Well, it's actually a combination of the wax and the tightness
of the weave.
That's quite incredible.
I'm surprised when people lean on the wall, they don't slip off.
Can I see it in its finished state? Come on, let's go.
Our whole batch of cotton runs through in just two hours.
The more you stare at this, the less green it looks
and it starts to look granite.
That's the shade we started with before waxing,
and that's where we've ended up.
It's taken over 20 hours of production,
to create enough fabric for 1,666 waxed coats.
They roll it into shorter lengths, and let the colour fully mature,
before sending it to our jacket factory.
But where did the idea of smearing a jacket with wax come from?
Ruth went to find out.
Often, when you think of wax jackets, the first image
that springs to mind is muddy boots and cocker spaniels
and open countryside.
But in fact, the history of this particular fashion item
is a far fishier tale.
The story of this garment starts off in the cold waters
off the east coast of Scotland.
I've come to the historic harbour of Cellardyke...
Hello!
Can I come aboard? Yes, you can.
..to meet fashion historian Dr Jane Tynan.
What on earth is the connection then between fishing boats
and wax jackets?
Well, in the 15th century, fishermen here who were trawling
the harsh seas were waterproofing their sailcloth.
So, I mean, sailcloth, we're talking about this sort of stuff here?
Yes, and when it gets waterlogged... It slows them down?
It slows them down.
They would have used fish oils, grease or tar, whatever was at hand
to make sure that it becomes waterproof.
And then they used that to fashion capes and hats for themselves.
And I suppose if you've got waterproof sailcloth hanging around,
it would make enormous sense? Yeah.
But this early sailcloth was linen and the garments made from it
were smelly and heavy.
Problems that were solved when cotton sails were introduced
on the famous 19th-century tea clippers.
They would have needed to move very, very quickly.
And the cotton was much better for that.
They would have treated it with linseed oil at the time
which was much more efficient
than the old fish oil, and much less odour.
By the 1850s, old cotton sails were being turned into
water-resistant clothes known as oilskins.
And local historian Richard Wemyss has some examples to show us.
What on earth are these lovely things then, Richard?
Well, we've got some replica oilskins here,
what the fishermen might have worn in the late 19th century.
They smell like linseed oil.
I love it, I do love it.
So this is cotton, with the linseed? Yes, that's right.
Oil skin production was big business in Cellardyke.
There were five oil skin factories in the town here
so it was a significant industry for a very small town.
One of the factories was producing at least 10,000 sets
of the fisherman's oilskins a year
in the late 19th century.
That's quite a big difference isn't it?
If we think of some of the very early fishermen,
sort of make do and mend and using scraps of sail,
into a complete industry. Yes.
By the beginning of the 20th century,
canny entrepreneurs spotted an exciting new market.
And this seafaring staple made its way ashore.
So what have we got here? This looks remarkably modern to me.
It is.
This is the Findlay Cape from around 1910.
We're still dealing with an oilskin, but by this time,
it's moving away from the fishing industry, and we find it used
by usually men for leisure pursuits.
OK, so it's still cotton.
It is, yes, and it's still being infused with linseed oil.
It's clearly made with a different market in mind.
I mean, this isn't rough workman's garment, is it? No.
This is, look at that lovely corduroy collar.
Beautiful, yeah. Beautifully lined.
I can't help myself!
Oh, yeah!
How does it feel? It's good!
This is very much the gent out in the countryside feel, isn't it?
Very much, yeah.
However, linseed oil wasn't without drawbacks.
It was prone to cracking and turned yellow in the sun.
Now this looks even more modern to me.
Yeah, this is more like the wax jacket
that we think of today.
It's a darker colour, because instead of the linseed oil,
it's infused with paraffin.
So this is much more pliable, this is an improvement
in terms of technology.
So when does this one date from?
This is from around 1930.
So essentially, then, this is the modern wax jacket?
It's rather funny, isn't it, really?
I mean, you can't get much more down-to-earth
than a Scottish fisherman,
in his work gear, covered in fish scales.
And then it ends up being worn by fashionable, urban people.
At the factory in South Shields,
a delivery of waxed cotton has just arrived,
ready to be turned into jackets.
I'm helping to make one from scratch.
My first stop is the cutting room...
..where Gary York's been cutting his cloth for 27 years.
Are you Gary?
Yes, I am.
Right. How do we make these into jackets?
Right, we have to hoist it up onto the machine.
Right, can I do that? Course you can!
Is it just pressing the button? Yup, that one's up.
We load our roll into what's known in the trade
as an automatic fabric spreader.
Keep going?
Stop there.
Right, then.
This is where the fun starts.
This control here.
If you want to go that way, you turn it towards you.
If you want to go that way, you turn it to the opposite way.
Wow!
The machine's job is to measure out waxed cotton into 1.5 metre squares.
And then we drop the clamp down, it keeps the material in place.
Oh, I see. And you go back again?
And you go back up that end.
Just the right size to make one jacket.
And now we need to cut it.
So that is the button so you just press it.
Whoa!
The super sharp blade slices through our fabric.
And back again?
And cut, right?
Has that ever come off the end?
No, luckily.
I'm helping to make one coat but they cut them in batches of 100,
which takes us 59 minutes.
We could be a team, Gary. We could.
So, what do we do now?
Right, we need to put the pattern on and get ready to cut.
If you wouldn't mind putting that on for us?
The pattern is all the different shapes, right?
Yes, it is. It is. Turn round.
These are all the different pieces of the jacket?
Yep.
There are 23 waxed cotton parts for our jacket.
Computer software has arranged them on the paper,
so the least amount of material is wasted.
That'll do nicely.
The company's been producing this traditional style for 39 years.
It's a complex three-dimensional jigsaw, made up of the waxed cotton
outer, a tartan lining, 29 studs, ten eyelets,
and a heavy-duty zip.
It all starts with cutting out.
If you get this wrong, you don't get it wrong on
one jacket, you get it wrong on 100?
On 100 jackets, yeah.
I mean, messing it up must be the most expensive thing ever?
It could be.
The layers must be perfectly aligned to minimise mistakes.
So these are now clamped down firm? Yeah.
Gary's using a blade that's a cross between a scalpel and a saw.
It's razor-sharp, so requires a chainmail glove.
I can see why you have to wear that glove.
Very sharp.
After 42 minutes of cutting, I've got all the waxed cotton I need.
And now, nearly 23 and three quarters hours into production
of my jacket, I'm heading from the cutting room
to the prep section,
where seven of the jacket's pieces are assembled.
Everything fitting OK?
Janice Warner is the team leader.
And with her 30 years' experience, I'm in safe hands.
Janice! Are you Janice?
I am, Gregg. Can I put these down?
You can put those down.
Quite heavy.
Right, what are we doing, then? You're going to make a stand.
This is one of the parts that you cut out.
We're starting with one of the smallest
but most important pieces.
The stand runs down the centre of the jacket,
protecting the zip and keeping out draughts.
Is that the stand there that's being made?
Yes.
That does not look simple. No, it's not.
So basically you are feeding that material down two sides
of a metal funnel? Yes.
All right, and stitching them up at the end.
How many does Joyce make in an hour?
Joyce can make 90 of these stands in an hour. 90?
90. 9-0? 9-0.
That's one and a half a minute. It is that. Right.
So, stands are done.
We get them transferred over and then Florrie is attaching
a front stand onto the front of your coat.
Is that a stand and deliver?
Yes!
It takes 30 seconds to sew the stand onto the front panel,
before it's passed onto the next station...
..where they add two handwarmers,
specially designed for frozen fingers.
Hello. Hiya..
This is Kerry. Hello, Kerry.
Nice to meet you.
This is where we put the moleskin handwarmers into the front
of the jacket. Moleskin?
Have you ever touched a mole? No.
Have a go.
Is that what a mole is going to...
Well, I've never touched one. I wouldn't know.
Me neither.
How would we know if it's authentic?
Have your touched a mole, Kerry? No.
I've held a hamster, they're furrier.
They're furrier? Yeah.
Right, but it's not really made out of moles. No.
It's a tightly woven soft cotton.
This clever machine has a laser guidance system to place
the pocket perfectly.
And it can even cut as well as sew.
Right, now, you're not going to let me have a go at this, are you?
I am.
It is complicated, but Kerry is going to explain
to you what you've got to do and how you've got to use it.
Don't let Kerry bully me. I'm harmless!
How hard is this, Kerry?
Take a seat.
Watch your pedals.
Press your left pedal, you'll feel a suction.
The powerful suction holds the front panel in place.
Hang on, it's now sucked this cloth down to the table.
Right, go on.
So that makes sure all the bits don't move.
Pick a welt up. Is that it there?
Yeah, that's it. That way up? Yeah.
And then that's gotta...
Just lie it to the corner.
Like that there, yeah?
And if you get the moleskins.
Put this one on top of your welt.
Put me moleskin on top of me welt?
I'm sure that's an old Yorkshire saying.
And line that side up.
There? Yeah.
Press your left pedal.
Whoa! Just once, one at a time!
And then do it again.
You press once, twice, three, there you are.
It takes just seconds for this hi-tech sewing machine
to cut a slit in our waxed cloth and stitch all the hand warmer
pieces in place.
God, it's the lightest of touches, isn't it?
There you go! And it gives you it back.
Of course, wax isn't the only way to keep out
the Great British weather.
There's a wide range of fabrics out there,
and a surprising amount of science behind them.
From fishermen to farmers,
from hikers to hipsters,
we all rely on waterproof gear when the heavens open.
But not all raincoats are equal.
I want to know what the difference is between waterproof,
water resistant and shower proof.
And what is breathability?
To get to grips with the science of staying dry,
I'm at the University of Leeds.
Hi, Mark, lovely to meet you.
Hi, Cherry, welcome to Leeds. Thank you.
Dr Mark Taylor is a world expert in performance clothing.
First, he wants to show me how wildly water resistance
can vary between jackets.
So, what we've got here is a shower proof fabric.
So it would make a very nice light shower proof running top.
Yeah, it's incredibly light, isn't it?
We are going to test this fabric's water resistance
using this hydro-static head tester,
which forces pressurised water against it.
And if you can see, there's water coming through already.
Oh, wow, look at that, yes.
Higher pressure equals greater water resistance,
which means your jacket will keep you drier.
And we've got to a pressure of 0.4 psi.
This low psi or pounds per square inch means this fabric is only
rated shower proof.
It's fine for a drizzle, but not for a downpour.
What about a waterproof fabric? How does that do?
It should do a lot better.
So we've got one here.
So this feels very much like the kind of material
that I would recognise from a waterproof jacket.
Absolutely, yes.
So, absolutely no water is coming through.
My goodness, and this is up to 3.8.
To keep you completely dry, it needs to withstand at least
ten psi of pressure.
It looks like it wants to pop.
We've got to 15 already, look.
OK, wow!
So at 17, what we're up to now.
20 psi...
POPPING SOUND
This fabric is so resistant to water, it's burst open
before any liquid has leaked through.
OK, so unless you're standing under Niagara Falls,
you're going to be pretty safe in that jacket?
Yeah.
But even if your coat is waterproof, it can still let you down.
Mark's going to demonstrate the problem in his...
hi-tech rain room.
This is where we make rain.
The rain's going to come from the modified nozzle
at the top there.
A modified nozzle, is the modified nozzle a garden hose
pointed at a particular angle?
It's been customised!
All right, saddle up.
This bright orange jacket is coated in a thin layer of plastic,
which blocks holes in the weave of the fabric,
the simplest way to create a barrier against the rain.
All right, Mark, make it rain.
Got in my shoe!
Whatever I put it through, its impervious PVC layer
means not a single drop has made it in.
Or out.
I'm quite damp on the inside.
I feel very clammy. And hot.
Yeah, that's the sweat that's coming off you.
You don't stay dry.
In fact, you're an even more gross type of wet.
Which is where breathability comes into it.
Gore-Tex were the first to market waterproof, breathable fabrics
in 1976.
Today, nearly every outdoor clothing manufacturer has a similar fabric
of their own.
So how on earth can a garment that protects you from the rain
also allow your sweat out?
So when the sweat evaporates off your skin,
it becomes water vapour.
So this is water in its gaseous form.
So it's individual molecules and they're very small. Yeah.
Raindrops are very big.
So if we have holes there a little bit bigger than
the water molecules but much smaller than the raindrops,
then water can't go through one way but it can come out the other.
Most waterproof, breathable fabrics are peppered with holes
less than half the diameter of a human hair.
Mark is going to show me how they work.
So, if we imagine this coffee is the human body and the steam
that's coming off the hot coffee is our evaporating sweat.
So that is my waterproof jacket? Yeah.
That's breathable. That's it.
Place it on top.
And then we can use this mirror to see if any moisture vapour
or steam comes through. Clever!
And the mirror should hopefully show us...
A steam patch.
Oh, look! There we go.
So I'm jumping around, I'm doing star jumps,
I'm hiking, I'm walking my dog, I'm riding my bike.
The sweat from my body is evaporating.
And it is leaving the jacket. Yeah.
There you have it.
To weather the weather, while staying comfortable,
strangely, you need a jacket covered in holes.
Now that I understand the terminology behind
the technology, I'm much less baffled by breathability.
Back in the factory, we're almost 24 hours into the process
of making our jacket.
And now, we're moving onto the main production line.
The parts we've prepped have come through to be stitched together
into a coat.
This looks busy.
Yep, this is your production line.
And this is where you're going to see your jacket made
from start to finish.
So each one of these machinists represents another bit of a jacket?
Yes.
Today on this line, they'll sew 162 jackets like the one
I'm helping to make.
That's the bit I made!
There's a bit precision engineering gone in there!
The flaps are going onto the pockets I sewed.
Meaning we now have a front panel with a stand
and finished handwarmers.
Can I? Yeah.
I see.
That's my bit there, right? It is, yeah.
This is my stand. That's your stand.
And here's me moleskin pocket.
That's your hand warmer. Yay!
From here, this panel passes through the hands of 20 machinists,
each adding their own pieces to our jacket shaped puzzle.
Where are we going out?
This, I really want to show you.
Go on, what happens here?
This is the front of your coat. Yeah?
This is where we attach the tartan to the jacket,
for the first time.
The bottom pockets are lined with soft cotton tartan.
Altogether, there are 12 pieces of lining that fit into the front,
back, sleeves and pockets.
They get through nearly two miles of this fabric every week.
And it's only used for this range of jackets.
I recognise that. Is there a name for that?
Yes, there is, it's called the ancient tartan.
Ancient tartan? Exclusive to our brand.
Won't find that anywhere else? Won't find it anywhere else.
Even in the Highlands of Scotland, you wouldn't find a farmer
running about with it on?
If it's our coat, yes, you will!
But not on his kilt? No.
It might be called ancient, but just how old is tartan?
Ruth is in Edinburgh to trace its chequered history.
There are thousands of tartans around these days.
And many of them carry family names.
This is a McDonald's, for example.
And a Fraser.
It makes them sound as if they've been around since time immemorial.
We do at least know tartan was here nearly 2,000 years ago.
The oldest surviving piece dates from around 230 AD.
But the next history milestone isn't for over 1,000 years,
as tartan expert Peter McDonald explains.
I think probably the earliest reference we have is from 1538.
But it's perhaps 100 years later after that
that we start to see depictions of tartan.
A lovely image of Lord Mungo Murray.
1680.
Wearing full highland dress.
And here we have a number of Highlanders.
These are soldiers overseas,
noted for their customs, their manners and their dress.
So this is Highland dress, not Scottish dress?
Not Scottish dress at that period.
Have you got any pieces that are particularly early?
Yeah, so we've got a piece here, it's an old plaid,
this is probably first-half 18th-century.
It's really harsh? Really harsh, yep.
And thin! And if you look here...
It's thin, but it's waterproof.
It's windproof. Yeah, it's really solid!
Same as denim, for jeans. Very, very strong.
That's a twill weave, because it's hardwearing.
And presumably, each group, each clan, has its own...
Not at that period.
So not specific tartan for specific clans?
No. No?
You had regional styles of it, like dialect or architecture.
There's evidence of around 100 different tartans from this time.
But while they weren't linked to clans or families,
their quality and colours revealed much about their wearers.
The poor would not have been wearing bright red,
because they wouldn't have been able to afford it.
Only the wealthy could afford the imported red cochineal dye,
made from exotic insects.
So here's a piece, beautiful piece of the very bright red tartan.
That's bright.
That's particularly associated with Bonnie Prince Charlie.
It's a piece that he actually held.
It's part of a plaid that belonged to him
that he gave to a Jacobite heroine called Colonel Anne MacKintosh.
Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobite supporters
wore tartan to symbolise their stand against the British Crown.
So when their uprising failed in 1746, highland men were outlawed
from wearing Highland dress.
Highland dress was associated with riot,
rebellion, violence? Correct.
So it's a way of sort of stamping out what had become almost a uniform
in a rebel group? Absolutely.
The ban lasted nearly 40 years and tartan almost disappeared.
Its eventual revival was ironically thanks to another British king.
I've brought you down to Leith Harbour.
This was where George IV landed in 1822,
the first monarch to come to Scotland for 150 years.
The king wore this fantastic outfit.
Jacket, kilt, hose and it's said that he wore flesh coloured tights
under his kilt to protect his modesty.
George IV chose to wear tartan to show that he was King of Scotland
as well as England.
And in doing so, he turned this traditional Highland dress
into the unofficial uniform of all Scots.
There were instructions that went out to people
as to what they should wear.
And particularly, they were urged to turn up
in their true clan tartan.
But many of them had no idea what that was,
because there had never been such a thing.
They would go off to a weaver and say,
"Help, what am I meant to wear?"
The weavers by that time had quite a large pattern book collection
and people would just select what they liked.
So your Gordon tartan, your MacLeod tartan,
your whatever it was, it was sort of largely
"That one, please!"
This was perhaps the event that crystallised Scottish identity
and clan symbology if you like.
So the whole clan tartan idea is an idea born in the beginning
of the 19th century?
Absolutely is. And it all started here.
With absolutely no family tradition of any tartan,
I thought I'd do what they did in the early 19th century.
Find one I like, claim it as me own.
Orangey, definitely, orangey.
Our green wax cotton and tartan lined jacket is making progress
along the production line.
The front square pockets are nearly finished.
Now they need press studs to fasten them.
Is that a job I can do?
That's a job you can try, yeah!
Stand back! Stand back!
Right.
They get through more than 18,000 of these brass poppers a day.
Got your underneath stud and your top stud.
They come down the channel, one goes underneath,
the other one comes on top, the clamp comes down,
and fastens them both together.
Top one? Top one. Bottom one? Bottom one.
Both separate, come in, down the machine...
Clamped together.
Now I just need a pocket to work on.
There's the pockets there.
Where? Stop.
There. Oh!
Well, don't hide them!
Right, hold them, don't get in the way!
You wouldn't let me work here, would you? No!
A light helps me place the studs perfectly in position.
Oh!
You can feel the power of it.
Right.
Lie it flat down on the...
Yeah. Taut on the thing.
Yes!
I'm really proud of that, can I have another one?
You can.
Now our studded pocket is sewn onto the front of the jacket.
Right, I get it.
There's my hand warmer.
And that's the pocket I saw put on.
It's taken more than 24 hours of production to get to this stage.
The zip is fitted...
And it finally begins to resemble the jacket I know!
Is it being put together here? Yes, it is.
Come on, come on, come on!
We are now attaching the two fronts to your back.
This is the first time that I've seen one, two, three
of the major sections put together.
That's brilliant!
And that fits perfectly.
That fits perfectly in line.
These girls are so skilled that very rarely we ever
get any mistakes.
We've got 18 of our waxed cotton puzzle pieces in place.
But there are a couple of vital elements missing.
The sleeves!
Now...
This looks tricky, the sleeves. It is.
Because there's no pattern to follow.
Christine knows which is the back of the sleeve and the front
of the sleeve.
So the sleeve actually follows the shape of the jacket.
But there's still no collar on it, right?
Collar goes on it in your next stage.
Over here? Yes.
The collar is the last piece to attach.
It has two layers.
Waxed cotton below, and around the neck,
hardwearing corduroy.
Oh, let me see!
One with the finished collar on it, please?
Hang on...
But it's got no...
Studs on it?
And that is obviously not finished.
The hem and the studs is done in the finishing section.
Finishing section? Finishing section.
Does that actually mean the finish? Yes.
Do you want to pick it up and take them?
Are you coming there? No. We've finished.
We've finished too? We've finished too.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Of course, waxed jackets are only one way to stay dry.
Another popular way to keep off the rain is the humble umbrella.
We spend an astonishing £10 million on them every year.
Cherry is finding out how they're made.
If the weather is looking a little bit dodgy outside,
I will not leave the house without my trusty umbrella.
The simple technology has saved my skin on many an occasion.
All right, you can stop now.
Thank you.
Fox Umbrellas have been handcrafting brollies since 1868.
Their components and manufacturing methods have barely changed
in 150 years.
Today, factory owner John Garrett...
Hi, John. Hi, how are you doing?
..oversees production of 400 brollies a week.
Each and every one begins with the handle.
This is where we choose what wood we're going to use.
Oh, beautiful, wow!
Isn't that beautiful?
I've got 15 different woods to choose from.
I love that one, because it's got lots of interesting markings on it.
That's maple.
It's got lovely graining in it, very strong.
Not only is it strong, but maple is also very supple
and easy to work with.
The first job is to cut my stick to size.
What an amazing machine.
It's about 100 years old.
That's absolutely incredible.
We'll use a belt-driven circular saw to trim it to precisely
36 inches in length.
It's the perfect height for the average person.
Oh, my God, I really don't want to mess it up.
Keep it on the blade.
This machine has made brollies for some illustrious customers,
from members of the royal family to US President John F Kennedy.
So the next stage is, we're going to cut the slots
for the springs.
The slots will house the wire springs which lock the umbrella
in the open or closed position.
Keep going until it stops. Yeah.
And then pull away.
The blade cuts an 8.5cm-long channel into the wood.
Did it work? It worked.
I feel so proud!
Then simple steel springs are hammered into the groove.
And a runner is slid onto the stick.
So this locks in place here on this spring.
And then the top spring locks it in place there.
It's so simple and yet so brilliant and elegant.
The next job is to attach the steel frame, which will
support the canopy.
This is like the skeleton of the umbrella.
These are the ribs. And then you've got kind of hinge here.
A hinge, so this is the stretcher part, so this is what pushes
out the canopy.
Now, the fiddly task of attaching my stretchers
to the runner with one-millimetre-thick wire.
Get that second one in, you've got that.
Then that one gets... First one's come out.
Then that's come out. So, yeah.
Then move, hold your index finger and hold that one,
yeah, perfect.
This is...
You've lost one.
Oh no, they've all come off. They've all come off.
That's going in, you stay in there!
Keep the umbrella pointing down. That way?
No, that way!
It's definitely a job for the professional.
There we go!
All right! Then we're going to use the cutters.
Stretchers attached, fixing the ribs is straightforward.
Oh, that is fabulous.
It's more kind of helicopter than an umbrella, isn't it?
I think we need to put a cover on it.
I think I'd get a few funny looks if I walked
down the street like this. You would.
Next door, eight panels of lightweight, waterproof polyester
are being cut out for my canopy.
The waterproofing process is done when the fabric is woven together.
So then it will be sealed with the repellency.
So it's an actual chemical and also the way the material is made
is waterproof? Exactly.
And not only that, we use waterproof thread as well.
So when it's all stitched together, the thread is waterproof as well.
Ta-da!
And there's your cover.
A team of highly skilled machinists stitch our panels together.
Look at that.
That was so fast!
And it's absolutely perfect.
At last, my frame and canopy are brought together and it's time
to attach the tips.
You're just pulling it up and hooking it over.
It really hurts.
OK, you can do the rest!
If it's not tight enough, we'll get a droopy canopy.
Once it's in place, I need to iron out any creases...
Just that little bit there, yeah. OK.
..before the finishing touch is added.
You're always meant to roll your umbrella.
And finally, an elegant metal cap
called a ferrule is hammered on to protect the tip.
And there we have it.
After cutting, framing, stitching and a bit of ferruling,
it's finally ready.
Does it work?
It does!
That's amazing. Wow!
All I need now is to do a rain dance.
Back in South Shields, we're 24 and three quarters hours
into the jacket making process.
But there are still some important jobs to do.
I'm heading to the finishing section...
Look out! Mind your backs.
..where I'm meeting Cath Edge.
Coming through!
Hello! Come on!
Cath, are you the boss of finishing?
I am, yes. Right, OK.
Well, I try to be.
They get hemmed first. Right.
And these are our two hem finishers?
Are your Mother Hem? I am.
Brilliant!
Well, the pressure's on here, this is the end of the line!
That's to say that all the sewing now is finished on the jacket
and it's ready for marking.
Sewing is over? Sewing is over with, yeah.
Now it's time to prepare our jackets for their final component.
This lady is drawing all over your coats.
Yes, this is Michelle, she does all the marking
on the jackets.
She'll use a yellow chalk pencil so you know exactly
where to put the studs.
Every jacket is unique, so it's essential
they're hand-finished.
These studs need to be lined up perfectly.
And by now, I should have my eye in.
We'll start with the collar.
Stud, stud the back and then stud that one.
Straight onto the yellow chalk marks.
Same as I did the pockets? Yes.
So once, that's it...
Oh, yeah!
Stud away!
How do you think I'm doing?
Bit slow.
So how long should it take someone to do what I just did?
Half a minute. 30 seconds.
Really?
You're putting me off. Go and get a cup of tea
and I'll come back and I'll have a few for you.
I'm going home in a minute, love.
You haven't finished yet. Oh, hang on.
Haven't finished yet.
Then you turn it.
This is the eyelet machine.
So Lindsay puts the eyelets in.
And then Maureen will put the top studs in.
And that's the jacket complete on studs.
With all its separate pieces sewn into place,
this highly complex 3D jigsaw is complete.
My jacket and the last of the day's batch now need checking and packing.
So we're taking them to the inspection department.
This is the final inspection.
You scan it just to get onto the screen.
Why do you bar code them?
It's just in case they come back with a fault.
So if there was a problem with the studs that I put on,
that bar code can trace it back to me? Yeah.
Seriously, Cath? I'll give you a ring!
That bar code is your jacket's DNA.
Yeah, it is.
Right, show me what you're checking for. Right.
Check for any weaving faults.
Washers on the eyelets.
Fold it in half.
Check the back of your collar.
Check the eyelets on the pocket.
Put your hand in the pocket.
And zip it up.
The team is so experienced, they can examine every centimetre
in just two minutes.
Do you have to do this on every single one, or just...?
Yes. Every single one?
Every single jacket. Right, right, right.
And then you just fold it in half.
Do you want a bag? Yes, I do want a bag, yeah.
That's it.
I couldn't even get the bag the right way up.
I couldn't even do the bag!
Pop that into the bag.
That's your jacket complete.
Right, Gregg, that's the security tag on. Right.
That's ready for dispatch.
Over there, right? Yeah.
Leave this with me.
Cath, thank you, thank you so much. No problem.
Jackets finished, I'm taking them through to the dispatch area...
Coming through, with a perfect batch!
Exceptional stud work.
..where I'm meeting company vice-chairman
Helen Barbour.
Now, you must be Helen? I am.
This might be the smallest dispatch area I have ever seen.
We send out 650 jackets a day.
And each cage will contain about 100 jackets.
That's why you haven't got a massive dispatch,
because you're basically sending out six of these cages? Yeah.
We have one distribution point that takes all
of the jackets from here.
And then they're distributed out to all over the world
from there.
The jackets head to stores right across the UK,
as well as countries as far afield as the USA,
Russia, Japan, and Australia.
Helen, lovely to meet you. And you.
Excuse me, some of us have got work to do.
I've got to load these jackets. OK.
The beautifully studded jackets.
Coming through, Dave. Where do you want it, on the right?
Nearly 25 hours after we started processing our cotton,
it's a waxed jacket, ready to cope with the rainy weather.
It's been incredibly satisfying seeing all that goes into making
these British classics.
I thought the process was fascinating.
All the way from the wax cotton to the finished jacket.
But what's amazed me is, it's virtually made by hand.
And then when I realised that, how quickly they do it.
There is, without doubt, a highly skilled workforce here.
Next time...
This is hard work.
..I'm in France,
visiting one of the biggest croissant factories in the world.
That is fantastic!
That is a massage parlour for croissants.
Where every hour, 18,000 breakfasts roll off the production line.
You know what?
The more I learn about the croissant,
the more I like it.
And Cherry learns what makes the perfect pastry.
You could hurt someone with those.