Mackintosh
A Mackintosh or Macintosh rare, abbreviated as Mack or Mac, is a rubberized and thus waterproof raincoat, which is associated with Britain.
The terms refer both to the products of protected fashion brand Mackintosh, whose history dates back to the year 1823 and located since 2007 in the possession of a Japanese textile company, and on the generalized brand name, are meant by the general rubber raincoats different manufacturers.
Brand History
In 1823, patented the Scottish chemist and inventor Charles Macintosh ( 1766-1843 ) a waterproof cotton fabric that he had impregnated waterproof soluble in rubber fabric paint and let him make rainwear in Glasgow by tailors and textile manufacturers. His company, he named Charles Macintosh and Co. The original idea for the soluble rubber textile paint had Macintoshes compatriot James Syme (1799-1870) had a few years earlier. Macintosh Syme bought from the patent and developed the idea in terms of rainwear on.
In 1830 the company merged with the Macintosh company of the English entrepreneur and inventor Thomas Hancock ( 1786-1865 ), who had already experimented from 1819 with rubber and rubber. 1838, the headquarters of Charles Macintosh India Rubber Company was moved to Manchester. Hancock optimized the rubber coating by a 1843 patent pending vulcanization. Initial difficulties with the rubber like odor intensity, stiffness and poor washability in hot water were overcome. The real Mackintosh were completely handmade and had glued instead of sewn seams.
The company expanded and supplied soon also official bodies such as the British police and during the two world wars, the armed forces of the United Kingdom with rain gear. Over time, the spelling with an extra " k " is usual, so that the brand name Mackintosh is known worldwide today. The term is often used in common parlance for all types of raincoats. The Beatles mention a Mac in the song Penny Lane.
1929 took over the company Dunlop Rubber Mackintosh, which consisted in this form until the late 1950s. One of the suppliers of the company, which was founded in England in 1895 Talworth Ltd.. , Produced until 1963 Mackintosh Clothes in Manchester and then moved the company headquarters to Scotland. 1974 was called to Talworth in Traditional Weather Wear Ltd. , Which had the brand name Mackintosh and the patents from the 19th century.
With the proliferation of inexpensive PVC as a textile company got the latest from the 1980s in a crisis. In the 1970s, the main business had consisted of rain -resistant uniforms for British Rail and the Metropolitan Police Service. In the 1990s, the sale of the Mackintosh factory in Cumbernauld threatened.
In 2000, the Scottish Mackintosh staff since 1983, Daniel Dunko, who had been appointed Sales Director in 1995, took over the company and became Managing Director. Dunko gave up the company name Traditional Weatherwer and renamed the company Mackintosh Ltd. order. On his initiative, the company Mackintosh other internationally known companies with the rubberized cotton fabric or with rainwear, supplied from the mid- 1990s, then in the high price range of, for example Gucci, Prada, Balenciaga, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Comme des Garçons were sold. 65 % of the product was in these times as a supplier to other companies, while 35 % of the own brand Mackintosh were used. The women's fashion took Dunko more than ever to target. The early 2000s was about 5 million pounds sterling of annual sales.
Mackintosh today
In 2007, the Mackintosh Ltd. of the Yagi Tsusho Ltd. trading company. bought from Osaka, among other fashion brands Barbour, Moncler and Woolrich, Inc. sells in Japan. Beginning of the 2010s there were two Mackintosh production facilities in Cumbernauld and in Lancashire, where about 120 employees manufactured 12,500 handmade Mackintosh annually. In January 2011, an elegant Mackintosh boutique in London's Mayfair was opened. 2012, a flagship store in Aoyama was inaugurated in Tokyo. In addition to the main line consists exclusively for the Japanese market, the second-line Mackintosh Philosophy. The best-known model of Mackintosh Coats is the Duncan section of trench coats. Competitors include Burberry, Aquascutum and Pringle of Scotland.