It was defined as “a dark and very respectable green” in the October 1975 issue of Vogue Italia, on page 288. The Pantone code is 18-0422 TCX and the description is “Loden Green”. How many other coats can boast a dedicated Pantone? Probably none, apart from this historic timeless coat that was born in the 11th century in Tyrol, in Trentino-Alto Adige, where shepherds wove this material using Tyrolean sheep’s wool. Indeed, the name loden indicates the particular fabric with which the coat is made, and not only the name of this iconic garment which has undergone many evolutions over time.
The word loden can be traced back to “lodo”, which in archaic German translates to “bale of wool” or “raw fabric”. It is a warm and soft fabric, very resistant and long-lasting, but above all waterproof, made through a long and complex process. Even today, it takes over 40 days of work to obtain just five meters of fabric. Due to its characteristics, loden can be considered a real cloth, but coats, cloaks, skirts and trousers are made with this fabric.
Since the Middle Ages, loden cloth was produced by farmers in the Dolomites and Tyrol who spun and wove on their farms, using it to protect themselves from the cold. The original color was greyish, like the raw wool of their Tyrolean sheep. It only became a fashionable fabric in the 19th century, when the Loden Moessmer factory (which has been producing in its Brunico factory since 1894) created a white cloak for Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. In this way, from peasant cloth, loden became a fabric for hunting and mountain clothes for the Austro-Hungarian nobility, and from gray its color became white, red, black and finally forest green, almost camouflage, which suited perfectly to hunting trips in the green Austrian countryside and which has become the iconic color of this coat.
Although its modern versions also include the use of merino wool and cashmere, particularly appreciated for their warmth and softness, the original version was created using only raw sheep’s wool, treated with a very long process. Only the most delicate wool is used from the shearing of selected sheep. After carding and spinning the wool is woven. This results in a raw fabric that is fulled (compressed and wrought) by machinery until is felted. This way you have a resistant cloth. The subsequent finishing phases are dyeing, raising, shaving and combing. These treatments direct and flatten the wool fibers in a single direction, which channels and slides any water droplets that may fall onto the cloth, increasing its waterproofness. To give the fabric its particular shine, the loden is then processed in special dryers.
The efficiency of the material is just one of the elements that make this coat evergreen, so much so that a Loden coat from decades ago can still be in excellent condition today. Worn over time by shepherds, nobles, intellectuals and actors, the Loden has won the test of time and is still featured in fashion collections today. If the dancer Rudolf Nureyev and the actor Helmut Berger contributed to making it an iconic garment by always choosing it as a companion for their nights between Paris and Berlin, icons such as Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Lady Diana consolidated it in women’s wardrobe.
Although the coat has changed over time and has gradually lost some of its distinctive features, the charm remains unchanged. The shirt collar has disappeared in favor of a collar more similar to that of a blazer than a hunting coat, the original buttons in woven leather or bone are often replaced with less valuable versions, while the long pleated of the back, the slanted pockets and the straps at the bottom of the sleeves closed by a button remain intact.
In Vandoies, in the province of Bolzano, there is a small museum of the Loden, a unique museum in the world where visitors have the opportunity to follow the entire manufacturing process, from the shearing of the sheep to the production of the clothes. Historic tools tell the story of the production of fabrics, the spinning activity of women during the long winter evenings, the journeys of street cloth sellers and the fulling of Loden. In Italy, among the major manufacturing companies providing the fabric to the most important fashion brands, are Oberrauch Zitt and Moessmer. The latter, in 2010, created the first fireproof Loden. Because the evolution of this fashion icon never stops!
