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Photo courtesy JD Scammell

Harrington Baracuta G-9 Jacket

By Douglas James Scammell

Published 12:23 PDT, Fri May 23, 2025

Fashion For Men

As we move into late spring and summer casual fashion, it is important to have the right jacket for days where the weather is mild, but unpredictable. You want a jacket that looks great but most important keeps you dry when that unpredictable weather turns to rain, As well, you want to be warm on breezy days but does not keep you too warm the way your winter jacket does.

There are many great jackets for late spring summer weather like: the safari jacket, the denim trucker jacket, a field jacket, the wax motorcycle jacket and my personal favourite, the British Classic, the Harrington Baracuta G9 jacket as shown here:

With a distinctive umbrella back yoke a two-buttoned collar and its ribbed cuffs and waistband, it’s a popular jacket for everyone no matter the gender and including famous celebrities of our time.

If you haven’t guessed it by now from my previous articles, I do love the classics when it comes to men’s fashion. I love sharing the history and the story behind each that has stood the test of time and the Baracuta G9 jacket is one of those great products with a story dating back to 1937.

Given that the City of Manchester with its climatic conditions, it is understandable that a number of rainwear manufacturers began operating in the area. One of them was a company called Baracuta, owned by brothers John and Isaac Miller. Their principal activity was the production of raincoats for brands such as Burberry and Aquascutum.

In the 1930s the Miller brothers began to develop the Baracuta name as an independent brand, and they created a number of unique designs, each with an alphanumeric codename. At the time, the success of their manufacturing business had afforded them the opportunity of joining Manchester’s social elite by becoming members of the local golf club, and in 1937 they developed a short, waterproof-zipper jacket that could be worn on the golf course. The design offered sufficient freedom of movement to allow players to strike the ball without restriction; it eventually became know as the “swing jacket” in Japan, but the company referred to it by the designated codename, G9 (the G indicating “Golf”).

In 1950, Isaac Miller began exporting to the United States, and the G9 was adopted by the celebrity golfing fraternity, which included such luminaries as Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Ronald Reagan. (Baracuta.com)

As mentioned, the original jacket was designed for the game of golf and was perfect for golfers because the jacket was waterproof, lightweight and its roomy fit, allowed golfer’s to strike the ball without restriction. The jacket is waist length and generally made of cotton, polyester, wool and with a traditional Fraser tartan or checkerboard pattern lining.

The G9 is the model I am pictured wearing in this article and it comes in colors Navy Blue and British Racing Green. I personally love wearing my jacket with dress pants or a pair of denim jeans. I will even at times wear it with a pair of shorts on cooler mornings in the summer. I literally wear this jacket to death from the beginning of spring, to summer and well into fall. It is personally my favorite casual wear jacket that I own.

As I said earlier, the weather in late spring and throughout the summer on the west coast can be very unpredictable and although we want to be comfortable we also want to look good whether we’re shopping, having coffee with friends or even on the golf course on those rainy, overcast days. I find this favourite jacket fits the occasion for me and I hope for you too.

The Harrington Baracuta G-9 jacket has also been extremely popular with some of the biggest celebrities from Rock legends, like Elvis Presley to movie icons, like James Dean wearing the red G9 jacket in the movie classic Rebel Without a Cause (1956), to Frank Sinatra and Gregory Peck. The G9 reached legendary status when Steve McQueen wore the jacket on the cover of Life Magazine in the July 12, 1963 issue and later McQueen wore the Navy Blue color one (identical to the one I am wearing in the pictures attached to this article) in the movie The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). Golf legend Arnold Palmer wore this jacket back in the 1960’s. Actor Christopher Reeve wore it in the movie Superman The Movie (1978). The television series in the 1960’s Peyton Place has a character in the show named Rodney Harrington played by actor Ryan O’Neill who frequently wore the Baracuta jacket so the company named the style jacket after him. That is where the name Harrington jacket originated from.

The Baracuta G Series Harrington Jacket is still just as popular today with celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Bradley Cooper, Daniel Craig, Jason Stratham, Tom Hardy and many others.