Burberry clothes have been around for a long time. The company was founded by Thomas Burberry in Basingstoke, Hampshire, in 1856 and its endeavours have earned a reputation for manufacturing items that are justly renowned for being hard-wearing. The company made the outfits for Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian who in 1911 became the first man to reach the South Pole, and for George Mallory for his ill-fated, and fatal, effort to climb Mount Everest in 1924.

One doesn’t have go to all that effort to justify wearing their clothes, which portray a less explorative image these days. These days the most distinctive aspect of Burberry clothing is the check pattern, which you can see on the lining of the mac photographed below. This has been a comparatively recent invention, being about 100 years old, since when the brand has become firmly established as an icon of the British fashion industry.

The range notably and perhaps most famously extends to coats, of course, as well as suits, trousers, shirts and leather jackets and a collection of accessories. A particularly large Burberry tote bag got something of a starring role in the recent, and final, series of Succession. There are also Burberry cashmere scarves (see the photo on the home page), which come in a selection of styles, some of which include the classic look shown here – as with the mac – but might also extend to other variations of yellow and brown or even shades of blues.

Finally, the money shock. A couple of months ago my wife was looking around at a local market and the woman stallholder had three Burberry macs similar to the one you see above – but apparently in pretty grim condition. Despite that, she was looking to get £200 apiece for them, and one has to figure she knew her…er, market. Since then, we met a friend of a friend for lunch who had paid £400 for one from a market. (We didn’t get to see its condition.) My wife, whose coat is the one you see here, is not seriously contemplating selling it but in these strapped financial times it definitely seems that Burberry clothing might be a hedge against inflation.