Trench Coat, Jane Tynan

Trench Coat casts an elegantly focused gaze on one of the most enduring garments of modernity, tracing its journey from the trenches of the First World War to the screens of film noir and beyond. Jane Tynan unspools the trench coat’s layered narrative—its practical warp and cultural weft entwined—demonstrating how a waterproof utilitarian jacket morphed into a symbol of mystery, rebellion, detective chic and cinematic prescience. This 160‑page volume weaves military history, visual culture, literature, and object theory into a seamless exploration of how a coat can carry time, ideology, style—and even warnings of the future.

About the Author
Dr Jane Tynan is Assistant Professor of Design History and Theory at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her work decodes the cultural afterlives of everyday objects, and in Trench Coat she brings scholarly depth and lyrical insight to a single silhouette—revealing it as a locus of trust, trespass, technology, law, war, genre and future imaginaries. Tynan’s writing feels as crisp as tailored gabardine, each sentence cut with precision.

Publication date: 2022
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9781501375163