Waxed Cotton

Waxed cotton is the traditional answer to rain: a tightly woven cotton, often a plain or twill, impregnated with paraffin or beeswax so water beads and runs off. It grew out of the sailcloth trade, where sailors rubbed grease and oil into flax sails to shed spray, and by the nineteenth century Scottish mills were selling proofed cotton for foul-weather gear. It became the cloth of the Barbour and Belstaff field and motorcycle jackets, weatherproof and self-healing in feel but heavy, in need of re-waxing, and eventually challenged by lighter membranes like Gore-Tex.