Paddington Bear wears a blue duffle coat: hooded, cut from heavy wool, and fastened with wooden toggles on rope loops. Michael Bond gave him the coat in 1958, by which point the duffle was already the most familiar piece of winter outerwear in British childhood. Gloverall has been making duffle coats to the same naval pattern since 1951, and our Shelley Cropped Duffle Jacket is a modern nod to that shape for adults.
What coat does Paddington Bear wear?
A blue duffle coat. The defining details are the ones the Royal Navy put there for practical reasons: a deep hood, a loose cut made for layering, deep patch pockets at the front, and toggles on rope loops that can be fastened with cold or gloved hands. Bond chose it in 1958 because it was ordinary. It was what British children actually wore, which is precisely why it reads as timeless now.
The coat in the books is a child's duffle. Gloverall's Children's Original Duffle Coat is the closest thing to it that we make: the same wooden toggles and jute rope, the same wide hood, cut down to size.
Is there a Paddington style duffle coat for adults?
Yes, and you do not need to buy a children's coat scaled up. The Women's Shelley Cropped Duffle Jacket carries the details that make the shape recognisable, wooden toggles and jute rope fastenings, in a cropped length cut for adult proportions. It comes in navy and camel.
For the full-length version, the Women's Original Monty and Men's Original Monty are as close to the 1951 pattern as any duffle coat still in production. Browse the full ranges in women's duffle coats and men's duffle coats.
The Shelley Duffle Coat
The Shelley takes the duffle coat's working details and shortens the body: wooden toggles and jute rope fastenings, angled front pockets, and a cropped length that sits better over trousers and skirts than a full-length coat does. Like every coat in our Heritage Collection, it is made in England.
It is a coat for the walk to the station and the cold end of an autumn afternoon, which is roughly what Paddington uses his for.
Why the duffle coat suits a bear from Peru
Because it was never a fashion coat. The duffle was naval issue, then surplus, then the coat of students and marchers and anyone who wanted warmth without expense. A small bear arriving at a London station with a suitcase and a hat belongs in exactly that lineage. The coat says nothing about status and everything about being ready for the weather, which is the most British thing about it. The fuller story is in our history of the duffle coat.
