Original subtitles

GREGG WALLACE: Famously, we Brits

are obsessed by the weather.

CHERRY HEALEY: On average, we spend

over five months of our life talking about nothing else.

GREGG WALLACE: It's no surprise, then,

that we spend nearly a billion pounds

on outdoor clothing every year.

You're going to need that.

Oh, no.

GREGG WALLACE: And few items work as hard to keep us

dry as the humble waxed jacket.

CHERRY HEALEY: It's an icon of British style.

Famous worldwide, the jackets made in this factory

are exported to more than 40 countries across the globe.

Right.

You're putting me off.

I'm Gregg Wallace.

Oh, you can feel the power of it.

And tonight, I'll be following the blistering workout--

that's obviously supposed to happen, right?

Yes.

GREGG WALLACE: --cotton goes through to become a coat.

[exclaims]

This is my stand.

That's your stand.

And here's me moleskin pocket.

Yeah.

CHERRY HEALEY: I'm Cherry Healey.

And I'm learning the dark art of defying a deluge.

And that is my waterproof jacket?

Yep.

That's breathable?

MARK TAYLOR: That's it.

CHERRY HEALEY: --and unraveling the technology behind tweed.

I'm hanging on by a thread.

Yes.

GREGG WALLACE: And historian Ruth Goodman--

RUTH GOODMAN: Oh, yeah.

GREGG WALLACE: --investigates the fishy origins

of waxed jackets.

CHERRY HEALEY: I suppose if you've

got waterproof sail cloth hanging around,

it would make enormous sense.

Yeah.

Oh, smell like linseed oil.

[chuckling]

[machines whirring]

Come rain or shine, over the next 24 hours,

the people in this factory will stitch together 650 jackets--

- -getting through 2,600 meters of fabric and 25,000 rivets.

Welcome to "Inside the Factory."

[light rock music]

[machines whirring]

This is the Barbour factory in South Shields,

a stone's throw from Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The guys here know a thing or two about jackets.

Because after all, they've been making them for 125 years.

[machines whirring]

More than 150 people cut, stitch,

and rivet 25 different designs.

This time, we're following production

of one of their bestsellers, the Bedale in sage green.

But before we start making our wax jackets,

we're going to need a super-sized batch of cloth.

[machines whirring]

[rock music]

And to get that, I'm heading 190 miles north to

the Scottish city of Dundee--

[van engine]

- -to the Halley Stevensons textile mill.

Every week, a lorry arrives here laden with cotton.

[hydraulic brakes]

Production manager Derek Orr is checking in today's shipment.

You must be Derek.

Yep.

Good to meet you.

How are you, Gregg?

[horn honking]

GREGG WALLACE: As the cotton enters the mill--

[timer beeping]

- -production of our waxed jackets begins.

Wee.

Right.

Nice and heavy.

GREGG WALLACE: Our first stop is a batching machine that we're

loading with our fabric.

This feels stiff to me.

I was expecting this to be like a loose cotton sheet.

This is stiff.

No, it's the starch in the fabric that is making it stiff.

Why add starch?

Just to strengthen the yarn during the weaving process.

Really, what you've got is a tightly woven, dense fabric.

Why do you want such a dense weave?

It helps with the strength of the fabric, durability,

and water repellency.

GREGG WALLACE: Its thread count is around the

same as my bedsheets at home.

There's no time for snoozing.

We need one long length of cotton

to make processing easier.

So we're joining five shorter pieces

end to end with a hefty, hand-held sewing machine.

[whirring]

So to start, all you do is put your foot on that pedal.

GREGG WALLACE: And we're ready to roll.

DEREK ORR: And press down on it.

[lighthearted music]

GREGG WALLACE: It takes three hours

to create a giant sheet of cotton a mile and a half long.

Our fabric needs to be tough enough to make the grade--

hey-- as a hard-wearing jacket.

But I wasn't expecting the process

to be such an extreme regime.

[rock music]

That is on fire.

That's obviously supposed to happen, right?

Yes, it is.

[rock music]

GREGG WALLACE: What's it doing?

We're singeing off any loose fibers.

We're taking off any hairs that are

on the outside of the fabric and getting rid of it.

GREGG WALLACE: Why can't it have a few stray hairs left to it?

DEREK ORR: Because it will affect the overall appearance

of the fabric.

And especially after dyeing, you will see it.

GREGG WALLACE: The singeing machine

is shooting out gas-fueled flames

at 2,000 degrees Celsius.

That's hotter than an erupting volcano.

What stops the material itself from burning?

That is flame.

Speed.

If we slowed this down, we would burn holes in the cloth.

It would set the fabric alight.

GREGG WALLACE: It's whipping through at a

carefully-calculated one meter a second.

[electronic music]

After its baptism of fire, our newly-shorn cloth immediately

gets another scalding.

Don't tell me-- thermal springs.

DEREK ORR: Almost.

GREGG WALLACE: So what's the temperature of that?

95 degrees.

GREGG WALLACE: The cotton is plunged

into the near-boiling water, then pulled

in and out of it seven times.

What are you doing there?

DEREK ORR: We need to get rid of the starch.

GREGG WALLACE: We're going to be coloring our cotton.

And the starch would act like a barrier to the dye,

stopping it from taking evenly.

But detergent alone isn't enough to shift it.

DEREK ORR: We're adding an enzyme to break

down the starch into sugars.

And that makes it easier to remove.

And then you can wash it off?

DEREK ORR: Then we can wash it off, yes.

GREGG WALLACE: The enzyme is called amylase.

It's also present in saliva, where it helps to break

down the starch in our food.

DEREK ORR: So the longer you leave it,

the longer you're giving the enzyme to work.

GREGG WALLACE: It takes 45 minutes to dip all our cotton.

And then it's wrapped in polythene for six hours

so the enzyme can soak in.

I don't think jackets are supposed

to be this complicated.

[chuckling]

We're on our way to making water resistant coats.

But long before waxed cotton came along,

another very British fabric ruled the roost--

tweed.

[cheerful piano music]

Historically, it was made in the Scottish Borders

town of Hawick, where Cherry is learning

her wool from her weft.

CHERRY HEALEY: 200 years ago, these streets

would have rung with the clattering

sound of mechanical looms making traditional heavy duty tweed.

And they would have needed it in weather like this.

Tweed is famous for its diagonal twill pattern and

intricate color combinations.

But it's the tight weave of this woolen fabric

that helps it to repel water.

Here at Lovat Mill, they produce 125 miles of this iconic cloth

every year.

James Fleming is the operations manager.

Hi, James.

Lovely to meet you. JAMES FLEMING: Hello.

Good to see you.

Hi, that's an impressive Great Wall of yarn.

JAMES FLEMING: The Great Wall of yarn it is indeed.

CHERRY HEALEY: Amazing, isn't it?

First, these vibrant shades need blending to help

create tweed's complex colors.

[machines whirring]

My goodness me.

JAMES FLEMING: Yeah, OK.

So the first stage here, we are combining two colors together.

[machines whirring]

What we are wanting to do is to twist those into a combination.

So literally just put a twist on the arms.

CHERRY HEALEY: Right.

Twisting them together not only creates a new color

but also produces a thread that's stronger and denser.

Here, we have four color components for this tweed--

the blue, the denim, a green, and a brown or a bronze color.

CHERRY HEALEY: Yes.

Before these yarns could be woven together,

they're spun onto a drum with a seven-meter circumference.

[rock music]

Holy moly.

Are you trying to smash particles together?

It looks like the Hadron Collider.

This is immense.

Yeah, this is our warping machine.

What is going on in here?

JAMES FLEMING: And what we're doing is,

we're taking our twisted threads.

And we're creating the warp.

What is a warp?

JAMES FLEMING: The warp are the vertical threads that we

need to begin our weaving.

Right, so if we've got our piece of material--

Yep.

- -you've got the vertical threads and then

the horizontal threads.

This is doing the vertical threads.

Yeah.

- And that's called a warp? - A warp.

Am I with you?

You're with me.

I'm hanging on by a thread.

Yes.

CHERRY HEALEY: This warp is made up

of 2,000 threads, which will produce

a fabric 150 centimeters wide.

The threads are rolled onto this huge bobbin

called a beam, which will create the vertical pattern.

[electronic music]

Now we're ready for them to meet the horizontal weft threads

on this high-tech rapier loom.

Oh, my.

Goodness me.

Look at that go.

JAMES FLEMING: And so we have two rapiers at each end, which

are basically picking up the weft threads,

bringing it into the middle.

And they meet in the middle, transfer that thread across

to the other side of the cloth.

And that's probably happening about six times a second.

[light rock music]

CHERRY HEALEY: The loom lifts each alternate warp thread.

And a computer-controlled rapier carries the weft thread

through the gap, passing it to another rapier

on the other side.

Then a bar pushes the weft down onto the warp.

And the process repeats, gradually

building up our twill pattern.

It's full of color.

JAMES FLEMING: Yeah, it's amazing.

CHERRY HEALEY: It's absolutely jam-packed full of color.

JAMES FLEMING: Yeah, completely.

It's just burst out when you get closer.

And you see the intricacies of the weave

and the color mixtures.

CHERRY HEALEY: 10 meters of tweed roll off each hour.

[cheerful piano music]

And experts meticulously inspect every centimeter, repairing

any imperfections by hand.

Wow.

There it is washed, pressed, and ready.

[cheerful piano music]

It is a material that is full of history.

JAMES FLEMING: It is indeed-- and full of lots of hard work

as well.

Yes, of course, and full of really, really odd words.

[chuckling]

GREGG WALLACE: After more than 10 and 1/2 hours of production,

our giant roll of plain cotton fabric

is about to go through its color transformation.

It's fed by hand into the dyeing machine.

So it's ready to become the classic sage green

of the coats we're making.

[machines whirring]

That the dye?

DEREK ORR: That's the color, yes.

GREGG WALLACE: Lift that out of there.

You said it was green.

DEREK ORR: It is green.

GREGG WALLACE: That, my friend, is orange.

Yes.

Because there's three colors in here.

There's a yellow, a red, and a blue.

And that'll make green.

Don't mess it up.

Because no one's going to want orange jackets.

[chuckling]

Right, Gregg.

So if you want to take hold of that bag

and just lower that bag into that tank--

GREGG WALLACE: What, empty it in?

DEREK ORR: No, no. You just lower the whole bag in.

What, the whole bag?

Yep. That's it.

Let go of the plastic.

GREGG WALLACE: You can't put the plastic in there.

DEREK ORR: It's dissolvable plastic.

GREGG WALLACE: It's the same stuff our dishwasher

tablets come wrapped in.

And it dissolves as fast as our 8 and 1/2 kilos of dye powder.

[chuckling] All right.

All right. All right.

DEREK ORR: Right. GREGG WALLACE: It is green.

DEREK ORR: Yeah.

[electronic music]

GREGG WALLACE: The color floods into the bottom

of the dyeing machine.

And the cotton is dipped in and out 16 times

while the liquid heats up to a positively

steamy 95 degrees Celsius.

Oi, oi. What--

DEREK ORR: --as we disappear.

GREGG WALLACE: Mate, if I get picked up by aliens,

can you tell my wife I love her?

[chuckling]

[light rock music]

After a five-hour swim in the hot dye,

our cloth needs drying.

First, a giant mangle squeezes out 25% of the moisture.

Then it travels through a 16-meter-long oven,

emerging an hour and a half later perfectly dry.

[light rock music]

God, that is right off.

I can't believe something as I considered

delicate like cotton can actually

be treated so strenuously.

Yeah.

GREGG WALLACE: The color doesn't look right.

That's too light. DEREK ORR: No, it's--

GREGG WALLACE: You've ruined it.

DEREK ORR: --no, that's plenty dark.

But that doesn't look like the jacket as I know it.

Yeah, because the wax and the oil

will change that color again.

Ah, right.

Right.

[lighthearted music]

Dyed and dried, the cotton for our coats

is finally ready for its all-important wax layer.

Managing director Jimmy Campbell is overseeing this crucial job.

Are you Jimmy?

Yeah.

Hi, Gregg.

Pleased to meet you, Gregg.

That thing there, this machine here,

all this just for waxing it?

JIMMY CAMPBELL: This is all just waxing, yeah.

GREGG WALLACE: We're starting near the top

of this 15-meter-tall metal monster

with a tank of liquid wax.

This is it.

We hold the wax in here about 95 degrees centigrade.

GREGG WALLACE: And is that enough to melt it and use it?

Yes, it allows it to be applied easier.

GREGG WALLACE: In here, there's around 1,900 liters,

enough to cover all 2,500 meters of our cotton.

What wax is it?

It's a combination of three compounds.

We've got a petroleum jelly--

so petroleum jelly is like lip balm-type chemical--

a paraffin wax like a candle wax, and then a refined oil.

Refined oil like you put in your car?

Yeah.

GREGG WALLACE: It's a blend designed

to maximize the water resistance and strength

of the finished jacket.

The hot, oily wax is pumped into a bath.

And the cotton is dunked in just once for three seconds.

So that's just come out of the wax bath.

Wow, OK.

Now that is certainly the right color.

That's beginning to look like the jacket.

JIMMY CAMPBELL: Yeah, it is, yeah.

GREGG WALLACE: Do you know how much

wax has gone onto that cloth?

JIMMY CAMPBELL: Yeah, so that's a 200 gram cotton.

And we're adding about 100 grams of wax onto that.

Really?

Yeah.

So 1/3 of the jacket is wax, is your wax?

That's correct, yeah.

And is that what keeps the rain out?

Well, it's actually a combination of the--

the wax and the tightness of the weave.

GREGG WALLACE: Our whole batch of cotton

runs through in just two hours.

[lighthearted music]

The more you stare at this, the less green it looks.

And it starts to look granite.

That's the shade we started with before, before waxing.

And that's where we've ended up.

GREGG WALLACE: It's taken over 20 hours of production

to create enough fabric for 1,666 waxed coats.

They roll it into shorter lengths

and let the color fully mature before sending

it to our jacket factory.

But where did the idea of smearing a jacket with wax

come from?

Ruth went to find out.

[mid-tempo celtic music]

RUTH GOODMAN: The story of this garment

starts off in the cold waters off the east coast of Scotland.

I've come to the historic harbor of Cellardyke.

Hello.

Can I come aboard?

Yes, you can.

RUTH GOODMAN: --to meet fashion historian Dr. Jane Tynan.

What on Earth is the connection, then, between fishing

boats and wax jackets?

Well, in the 15th century, fishermen here

who were trawling the harsh seas were

waterproofing their sail cloth.

So, I mean, sail cloth, we're talking

about this sort of stuff here.

JANE TYNAN: Yeah, and when it gets waterlogged--

It slows them down.

It slows them down.

They would have used fish oils, grease,

or tar, whatever was at hand to make sure

that it becomes waterproof.

And then they used that to fashion

capes and hats for themselves.

[accordion music]

RUTH GOODMAN: But this early sail cloth was linen.

And the garments made from it were smelly and heavy,

problems that were solved when cotton

sails were introduced on the famous 19th century tea

clippers.

[accordion music]

JANE TYNAN: They would have needed to move very,

very quickly.

And the cotton was much better for that.

And they would have treated it with linseed oil

at the time, which was much more efficient than the old fish oil

and much less odor.

[fiddle music]

RUTH GOODMAN: By the 1850s, old cotton sails

were being turned into water resistant

clothes, known as oilskins.

And local historian Richard Wemyss

has some examples to show us.

What on Earth are these lovely things, then, Richard?

RICHARD WEMYSS: Well, we've got some replica oilskins

here, what the fishermen might have

worn in the late 19th century.

Oh, smell like linseed oil.

RICHARD WEMYSS: I know.

I love it.

I do love it.

So this is cotton?

Yes.

With the linseed?

That's right.

[fiddle music]

RUTH GOODMAN: Oilskin production was big business in Cellardyke.

RICHARD WEMYSS: There were five oilskin factories in the town

here.

So it was a significant industry for a very small town.

One of the factories was producing at least 10,000 sets

of the fishermen's oilskins a year

and the late, late 19th century.

[accordion music]

RUTH GOODMAN: By the beginning of the 20th century,

canny entrepreneurs spotted an exciting new market.

And this seafaring staple made its way ashore.

So what have we got here?

This looks remarkably modern to me.

JANE TYNAN: It is.

This is the Findlay cape from around 1910.

We're still dealing with an oilskin.

But by this time, it's moving away from the fishing industry.

And we find it used by usually men for leisure pursuits.

RUTH GOODMAN: OK, so it's still cotton.

JANE TYNAN: It is, yes.

And it's still being infused with linseed oil.

RUTH GOODMAN: It's clearly made with a different market

in mind.

I mean, this isn't a rough workman's garment, is it?

This is a lovely corduroy collar.

It's all-- JANE TYNAN: Beautiful, yeah.

- RUTH GOODMAN: - -beautifully lined.

[chuckling]

I can't help myself.

[laughing]

Oh, yeah.

JANE TYNAN: How does it feel?

RUTH GOODMAN: It's good.

[laughing]

This is very much the--

the "gent out in the countryside" sort of feel--

- Very much. - --isn't it?

Yeah.

RUTH GOODMAN: However, linseed oil wasn't without drawbacks.

[fiddle music]

It was prone to cracking and turned yellow in the sun.

Now this looks even more modern to me.

JANE TYNAN: Yeah, this is more like the wax jacket

that we think of today.

It's a darker color.

Because instead of the linseed oil,

it's infused with paraffin.

So this is much more pliable.

This is an improvement in terms of technology.

RUTH GOODMAN: So when does this one date from?

JANE TYNAN: This is from around 1930.

So essentially, then, this is the modern wax jacket.

JANE TYNAN: Yeah, yeah.

RUTH GOODMAN: It's rather funny, isn't it, really?

I mean, you can't get much more down to Earth

than a Scottish fisherman--

JANE TYNAN: Yes.

- -in his work gear, covered in fish scales.

JANE TYNAN: And then it ends up being worn

by fashionable urban people.

[lighthearted guitar music]

GREGG WALLACE: At the factory in South Shields,

a delivery of waxed cotton has just arrived, ready to be

turned into jackets.

[rock music]

I'm helping to make one from scratch.

[grunting]

My first stop is the cutting room--

[machines whirring]

- -where Gary York's been cutting his cloth for 27 years.

Are you Gary?

Yes, I am.

Right, how do we make these into a jacket?

Right, we have to hoist it up onto the machine.

Right, can I do that? GARY YORK: Of course you can.

Is it just pressing the button?

Yep. That one's up.

GREGG WALLACE: Come on.

We load our roll into what's known

in the trade as an automatic fabric spreader.

[machinery squeaking]

Keep going?

Right, stop there.

Right, then.

This is where the fun starts.

This control here, if you want to go that way,

you turn it towards you.

If you want to go that way, you turn it the opposite way.

GREGG WALLACE: Whoa.

Whoa.

The machine's job is to measure our waxed cotton

into 1 and 1/2 meter squares.

And then we drop the clamp down.

And it keeps the material in place.

GREGG WALLACE: Oh, I see. And then go back again.

And you go back up that end.

GREGG WALLACE: Just the right size to make one jacket.

GARY YORK: And now we need to cut it.

[machinery squeaking]

So that is the button.

So you just press it.

[whirring]

GREGG WALLACE: Whoa.

Whoa.

[whirring]

The super-sharp blade slices through our fabric.

I'm helping to make one coat.

But they cut them in batches of 100, which takes us 59 minutes.

We could be a team, Gary.

We could.

GREGG WALLACE: So what do we do now?

GARY YORK: Right, we need to put the pattern

on and get ready to cut.

If you wouldn't mind putting that on for us--

The pattern is all the different shapes, right?

Yes, it is.

It is.

Turn 'round.

GREGG WALLACE: These are all the different pieces of the jacket?

GARY YORK: Yeah. [lighthearted music]

GREGG WALLACE: There are 23 waxed cotton

parts for our jacket.

Computer software has arranged them on the paper

so the least amount of material is wasted.

[lighthearted music]

Way, hey.

That'll do nicely.

GREGG WALLACE: The company's been

producing this traditional style for 39 years.

It's a complex three-dimensional jigsaw made up

of the waxed cotton outer, a tartan lining, 29 studs, 10

eyelets, and a heavy duty zip.

It all starts with cutting out.

If you get this wrong, you don't get it wrong on one jacket.

You get it wrong on 100.

On 100 jackets, yeah.

I mean, the messing it up, it must be

the most expensive thing ever.

It could be.

GREGG WALLACE: The layers must be perfectly

aligned to minimize mistakes.

So these are now clamped down firm.

GARY YORK: Yep.

[whirring]

GREGG WALLACE: Gary's using a blade that's a cross

between a scalpel and a saw.

It's razor sharp so requires a chainmail glove.

I can see why you have to wear that glove.

GARY YORK: It's very sharp.

GREGG WALLACE: After 42 minutes of cutting,

I've got all the waxed cotton I need.

And now, nearly 23 and 3/4 hours into production of my jacket,

I'm heading from the cutting room

to the prep section, where seven of the jacket's pieces

are assembled.

Everything fitting OK?

GREGG WALLACE: Janice Warner is the team leader.

And with her 30 years' experience, I'm in safe hands.

Janice? Are you Janice?

- I am, Gregg. - Could I put these down?

- They're-- - You can put those down.

- --actually quite heavy. - Yeah.

[upbeat music]

Right, what are we doing?

JANICE WARNER: We're going to make a stand.

This is one of the parts that you cut out.

GREGG WALLACE: We're starting with one of the smallest

but most important pieces.

The stand runs down the center of the jacket,

protecting the zip and keeping out drafts.

[whirring]

Is that the stand there that's being made?

JANICE WARNER: Yes.

GREGG WALLACE: That does not look simple.

JANICE WARNER: No, it's not.

So basically, you are feeding that material down two sides

of a metal funnel.

JANICE WARNER: Yes.

GREGG WALLACE: All right, and then

stitching them up at the end.

[whirring]

How many does Joyce make in an hour?

JANICE WARNER: Joyce can make 90 of these stands an hour.

90?

90.

9-0?

9-0.

GREGG WALLACE: That's like 1 and 1/2 a minute.

JANICE WARNER: It is that.

[inaudible]

GREGG WALLACE: Right.

So stands are done.

JANICE WARNER: Yeah, we get them transferred over.

And then Florrie's attaching the front stand

onto the front of your coat.

Is that a stand and deliver?

JANICE WARNER: Yes.

[chuckling]

[upbeat music]

GREGG WALLACE: It takes 30 seconds

to sew the stand onto the front panel

before it's passed on to the next station, where

they add two hand warmers specially

designed for frozen fingers.

[whirring]

Hello.

Hiya. JANICE WARNER: This is Kerry.

- Hello, Kerry. - Hello.

Nice to meet you.

JANICE WARNER: And this is where we

put the moleskin hand warmers into the front of the jackets.

But it's not really made out of moles?

JANICE WARNER: No.

It's a tightly woven soft cloth.

GREGG WALLACE: This clever machine

has a laser guidance system to place the pocket perfectly.

And it can even cut as well as sew.

[whirring]

Right.

Now-- but you're not going to let me have a go at this,

are you?

JANICE WARNER: I am.

[whirring]

It is complicated.

But Kerry's going to explain to you what you've got to do

and how you've got to use this.

Don't let Kerry bully me.

KERRY: I'm harmless.

[chuckling]

Yeah.

GREGG WALLACE: How hard is this, Kerry?

KERRY: Take a seat.

Right, you'll have to watch your pedals.

Press your left pedal.

You'll feel a suction.

That's it.

GREGG WALLACE: The powerful suction

holds the front panel in place.

Hang on.

It's now sucked this cloth--

KERRY: Yes.

- GREGG WALLACE: - -down to the table.

Right.

KERRY: So that makes sure all the bits don't move.

All right.

Pick a welt up. Yes.

GREGG WALLACE: Is that it there?

KERRY: Yep, that's it.

GREGG WALLACE: That way up?

KERRY: Yep.

GREGG WALLACE: And then that's got to--

KERRY: Just lie into the corner.

GREGG WALLACE: Like that there, yeah?

And if you get the moleskins, put

this one on top of your welt.

GREGG WALLACE: Put me moleskin on top of me welt.

KERRY: Yeah.

I'm sure that's an old Yorkshire saying.

KERRY: Then line that side up.

[whirring]

GREGG WALLACE: There.

KERRY: Yeah, press your left pedal--

just one--

GREGG WALLACE: Whoa.

- -one at a time.

And then do it again.

And press once, twice, three.

There you are.

GREGG WALLACE: Hey, hey, hey.

It takes just seconds for this high-tech sewing machine

to cut a slit in our waxed cloth and stitch all the hand

warmer pieces in place.

God, it's the lightest of touch, isn't it?

[whirring] KERRY: There you go.

And it gives your bit back.

Of course, wax isn't the only way to keep

out the great British weather.

There's a wide range of fabrics out there

and a surprising amount of science behind them.

[upbeat music]

CHERRY HEALEY: To get to grips with the science

of staying dry, I'm at the University of Leeds.

Hi, Mark.

- Lovely to meet you. - Hi, Cherry.

Welcome to Leeds.

Thank you.

Dr. Mark Taylor is a world expert in performance clothing.

First, he wants to show me how wildly water resistance

can vary between jackets.

MARK TAYLOR: So what we've got here is a showerproof fabric.

So it would make a very nice light showerproof running top.

Yeah, it's incredibly light, isn't it?

We're going to test this fabric's water resistance using

this hydrostatic head tester, which forces

pressurized water against it.

MARK TAYLOR: And if you can see, there's

- water coming through already. - Oh, wow.

Look at that.

Yes.

Higher pressure equals greater water

resistance, which means your jacket will keep you drier.

MARK TAYLOR: And we've got to a pressure of 0.4 psi.

CHERRY HEALEY: This low psi, or pounds per square inch,

means this fabric is only rated showerproof.

It's fine for drizzle but not for a downpour.

What about a waterproof fabric?

How does that do?

It should do lots better.

So we've got one here.

CHERRY HEALEY: OK.

And this feels very much like the kind of material

that I would recognize from a waterproof jacket.

MARK TAYLOR: Absolutely, yes.

[upbeat music]

CHERRY HEALEY: So absolutely no water is coming through.

[upbeat music]

Oh, my goodness.

And this is up to 3.8.

To keep you completely dry, it needs to withstand

at least 10 psi of pressure.

It looks like it wants to pop.

We've got to 15 already. Look.

OK. Wow.

MARK TAYLOR: Yeah, so at 17, what we've got to now.

20 psi.

[exclaims]

CHERRY HEALEY: This fabric is so resistant

to water it's burst open before any liquid has leaked through.

OK, so unless you're standing under Niagara Falls,

you're going to be pretty safe in that jacket.

Yeah.

[electronic music]

CHERRY HEALEY: But even if your coat is waterproof,

it can still let you down.

Mark's going to demonstrate the problem

in his high-tech rain room.

This is where we make rain.

The rain's going to come from the modified nozzle at the top

there.

A modified nozzle?

Is the modified nozzle a garden hose

pointed at a particular angle?

It's been customized.

[chuckling]

[electronic music]

All right, saddle up.

This bright orange jacket is coated in a thin layer

of plastic, which blocks holes in the weave

of the fabric, the simplest way to create

a barrier against the rain.

All right, Mark.

Make it rain.

[exclaims]

It got in my shoe.

[electronic music]

Whatever I put it through, its impervious PVC layer means not

a single drop has made it in--

or out.

I'm quite damp on the inside.

I feel very clammy and hot.

Yeah, that's the sweat that's coming off you.

You don't stay dry.

In fact, you are an even more gross type

of wet, which is where breathability comes into it.

Gore-tex were the first to market waterproof

breathable fabrics in 1976.

Today, nearly every outdoor clothing manufacturer has

a similar fabric of their own.

So how on Earth can a garment that protects you from the rain

also allow your sweat out?

So when the sweat evaporates off your skin,

it becomes water vapor.

So this is water in its gaseous form.

So it's individual molecules.

And they're very small.

Yeah.

Raindrops are very big.

So if we have holes that are a little bit

bigger than the water molecules but much smaller

than the raindrops, then water can't go through one way.

But it can come out the other.

[electronic music]

CHERRY HEALEY: Most waterproof breathable fabrics

are peppered with holes less than half

the diameter of a human hair.

Mark is going to show me how they work.

MARK TAYLOR: So if we imagine this coffee is the human body

and the steam that's coming off the hot coffee

is our evaporating sweat--

So that is my waterproof jacket?

Yep.

That's breathable?

MARK TAYLOR: That's it.

Place it on top.

And then we can use this mirror to see if any moisture,

vapor, or steam comes through.

Clever.

MARK TAYLOR: And the mirror should hopefully

show us a steam patch.

There we go.

So I'm jumping around.

I'm doing star jumps. I'm hiking.

I'm walking my dog.

I'm riding my bike.

The sweat from my body is evaporating.

And it is leaving the jacket.

MARK TAYLOR: Yeah.

[upbeat guitar music]

[timer beeping]

GREGG WALLACE: We're almost 24 hours

into the process of making our jacket.

And now we're moving onto the main production line.

The parts we've prepped have come through to be

stitched together into a coat.

[whirring]

This looks busy.

JANICE WARNER: Yep, this is your production line.

And this is where you're going to see your jacket

made from start to finish.

So each one of these machinists

represents another bit of the jacket?

Yes.

GREGG WALLACE: Today on this line,

they'll sew 162 jackets like the one I'm helping to make.

That's the bit I made.

JANICE WARNER: Yep.

GREGG WALLACE: There's a bit of precision

engineering gone in there.

The flaps are going onto the pockets I sewed, meaning

we now have a front panel with a stand

and finished hand warmers.

Can I?

Yep.

Oh, I see.

That's my bit there, right?

It is, yep.

This is my stand.

That's your stand.

And here's me moleskin pocket.

Yep, that's your hand warmer.

Hey.

[whirring]

From here, this panel passes through the hands

of 20 machinists, each adding their own pieces

to our jacket-shaped puzzle.

Where we going now?

Right.

This I really want to show you.

GREGG WALLACE: Ah.

Go on.

What happens here?

JANICE WARNER: This is the front of your coat.

Yeah.

This is where we attach the tartan

to the jacket the first time.

GREGG WALLACE: The bottom pockets are

lined with soft cotton tartan.

[fiddle music]

Altogether, there are 12 pieces of lining

that fit into the front, back, sleeves, and pockets.

They get through nearly two miles

of this fabric every week.

And it's only used for this range of jackets.

I recognize that.

Is there a name for that?

Yes, there is.

It's called the ancient tartan.

GREGG WALLACE: Ancient tartan?

JANICE WARNER: Yep, it's exclusive to our brand.

GREGG WALLACE: You won't find that anywhere else?

You won't find it anywhere else.

Even in the highlands of Scotland,

you wouldn't find, like, a farmer running about with it

on?

If it's about our coat, yes, you will.

[chuckling]

- But not on his kilt? - No.

[upbeat music]

[whirring]

GREGG WALLACE: Our green waxed cotton and tartan-lined jacket

is making progress along the production line.

The front square pockets are nearly finished.

Now they need press studs to fasten them.

Is that a job I can do?

That's a job you can try, yeah.

Stand back.

Stand back.

Right.

They get through more than 18,000

of these brass poppers a day.

JANICE WARNER: Got your underneath stud

and your top stud.

They come down the channel.

One goes underneath.

The other one comes on top.

The clamp comes down and fastens them both together.

GREGG WALLACE: Top one?

Top one.

Bottom one.

Bottom one.

Both separate--

- Yep. - --come in--

Yep.

- -down the machine--

Come together. GREGG WALLACE: --together.

Yeah.

GREGG WALLACE: Now I just need a pocket to work on.

JANICE WARNER: Right, there's the pockets there.

GREGG WALLACE: Where?

JANICE WARNER: Stop.

There.

GREGG WALLACE: Oh.

Well, don't hide them.

Right.

Hold them.

Don't get in the way.

You wouldn't let me work here, would you?

JANICE WARNER: No.

[chuckling]

GREGG WALLACE: A light helps me place the studs perfectly

in position.

[whirring]

Oh, you can feel the power of it.

Right.

Lie it flat down on the-- yeah, taut on the thing.

[whirring]

Yeah.

Yes.

[upbeat music]

[chuckling]

I'm really proud of that.

Can I have another one?

JANICE WARNER: You can.

GREGG WALLACE: Now our studded pocket is sewn

onto the front of the jacket.

[buzzing]

It's taken more than 24 hours of production

to get to this stage.

[timer beeping]

The zip is fitted.

And it finally begins to resemble the jacket I know.

Oh, is it being put together here?

- Yes, it is. - Come on.

Come on.

Come on. Come on.

Come on.

JANICE WARNER: We're now attaching

the two fronts to your back.

GREGG WALLACE: This is the first time

that I've seen one, two, three of the major sections put

together.

That's brilliant.

JANICE WARNER: Good.

GREGG WALLACE: And that meets perfectly.

JANICE WARNER: Pockets are perfectly in line.

These girls are so skilled that very rarely

we ever get any mistakes.

[upbeat music]

GREGG WALLACE: We've got 18 of our waxed cotton puzzle pieces

in place.

But there are a couple of vital elements missing--

the sleeves.

[whirring]

Now this looks tricky, the sleeves.

JANICE WARNER: It is.

GREGG WALLACE: Because there's no pattern to follow.

JANICE WARNER: Christine knows which

is the back of the sleeve, and the right,

and the front of the sleeve.

So the sleeve actually follows the shape of the jacket.

GREGG WALLACE: But there's still no collar on it, right?

The collar goes on in your next station.

Over here?

Yes.

GREGG WALLACE: The collar is the last piece to attach.

It has two layers--

waxed cotton below and, around the neck,

hard-wearing corduroy.

Oh, let me see one with a finished collar on it, please.

Hang on.

But it's got no studs on it.

And that is obviously not finished.

JANICE WARNER: The hem and the studs

is done in the finishing section.

Finishing section?

The finishing section.

Does that actually mean the finish?

Yes.

Do you want to pick it up and take them?

- Are you coming there? - No.

We've finished.

We're finished, too?

Yeah, finished, too.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

[upbeat music]

GREGG WALLACE: In South Shields, we're 24 and 3/4 hours

into the jacketmaking process.

But there are still some important jobs to do.

I'm heading to the finishing section.

Look out.

Mind your backs-- where I'm meeting Cath Edge.

Coming through.

I'll go-- hello.

Come on.

Cath?

Are you the boss of finishing?

CATH EDGE: I am, yes.

GREGG WALLACE: Right, OK.

CATH EDGE: Well, I try to be.

They get hemmed first.

GREGG WALLACE: Right, and these are our two hem finishers.

[buzzing]

Are you Mother Hem?

I am.

Brilliant.

Now it's time to prepare our jackets

for their final component.

This lady's drawing all over your coats.

Yes, this is Michelle.

She does all the marking on the jackets.

[whirring]

She'll use a yellow chalk pencil so you know

exactly where to put the studs.

GREGG WALLACE: Every jacket is unique.

So it's essential they're hand finished.

These studs need to be lined up perfectly.

And by now, I should have my eye in.

We'll start with the collar.

Stud and stud the back.

And then stud that one straight onto the yellow chalk mark.

Same as I did the-- CATH EDGE: Yes.

GREGG WALLACE: --pockets? CATH EDGE: So one shell in.

That's it, yeah.

That's it.

GREGG WALLACE: Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Stud away.

That's it.

How do you think I'm doing?

Bit slow.

So how long should it take someone to do what I just did?

Half a minute--

30 seconds.

Really?

Mhm.

You're putting me off.

Go and get a cup of tea.

And I'll come back.

And I'll have a few for you.

MICHELLE: I'm going home in a minute, love.

- There. - You haven't finished yet.

Oh, hang on.

You haven't finished yet.

[chuckling]

Then you turn it.

This is the eyelet machine.

So Lindsay puts eyelets in.

And then Maureen will put the top studs in.

[buzzing]

Then that's the jacket complete on studs.

[whirring]

[upbeat music]

GREGG WALLACE: With all its separate pieces

sewn into place, this highly complex 3D jigsaw is complete.

My jacket and the last of the day's batch

now need checking and packing.

So we're taking them to the inspection department.

[electronic music]

CATH EDGE: This is the final inspection.

You scan it just to get it onto the screen.

GREGG WALLACE: Why do you bar code them?

It's just in case they come back with a fault.

So if there was a problem with the studs that I put on,

that barcode could trace it back to me?

Yep. Yeah.

GREGG WALLACE: Seriously, Cath?

I'll give you a ring.

[laughing]

That barcode is your jacket's DNA.

Yeah, it is.

Right, show me what-- what you're checking for.

CATH EDGE: Right, check for any weaving faults,

washers on the eyelets.

Fold it in half.

Check the back of your collar.

Check the eyelets on the pocket.

Put your hand the pockets.

And zip it up.

GREGG WALLACE: The team is so experienced they

can examine every centimeter in just two minutes.

Do you have to do this on every single one or just--

CATH EDGE: Yes.

Every single one?

Every single jacket.

Right, right, right, right.

And then you just fold it in half.

Do you want a bag?

CATH EDGE: Yes, I do want a bag, yeah.

[clears throat] CATH EDGE: That's it.

I couldn't even get the bag the right way up.

I couldn't even do the bag.

CATH EDGE: Pop that into the bag.

And that's your jacket complete.

[energetic music]

Right, Gregg, that's the security tag on.

And that's ready for dispatch.

Hurray.

- Over there, right? - Yes.

- Leave this with me. - Yeah.

Cath, thank you.

No problem.

Thank you so much.

Jackets finished, I'm taking them

through to the dispatch area.

Coming through with a perfect batch--

exceptional stud work-- [grunting]

where I'm meeting company Vice Chairman Helen Barbour.

Now you must be Helen.

I am.

This might be the smallest dispatch area I've ever seen.

We send out 650 jackets a day.

And each cage will contain about 100 jackets.

That's why you haven't got a massive dispatch.

Because you're basically sending out six of these cages a day.

HELEN BARBOUR: Yeah, we have one distribution point that takes

all of the jackets from here.

And then they're distributed out to all over the world

from there.

[energetic music]

GREGG WALLACE: The jackets head to stores right across the UK

as well as countries as far afield as the USA,

Russia, Japan, and Australia.

Helen, lovely to meet you.

- And you. - Excuse me.

Some of us have got work to do.

I've got to load these jackets.

OK.

(SINGING) Oh, the beautifully studded jackets--

right, coming through, Dave.

Where do you want it, on the right?

Yeah.

GREGG WALLACE: Nearly 25 hours after we started processing

our cotton, it's a wax jacket ready to cope

with the rainy weather.

[energetic music]

It's been incredibly satisfying seeing all that goes

into making these British classics.

I thought the process was fascinating

all the way from the wax cotton to the finish jacket.

But what's amazed me is, it's virtually made by hand.

And then when I realized that, how quickly they do it,

there is, without doubt, a highly skilled workforce here.

[energetic music]