Best City-Slickin’ Barn Coat: Todd Snyder Long Canvas Stable Jacket
Todd Snyder has excelled at making upgraded no-brainer staples that men love to rock. Here again, he takes the barn jacket uptown with this stable-inspired spin. Cut from heavyweight cotton canvas with a two-way zip, snap placket, and a neat throat latch, that’s more Trader Joe’s than Farmer Joe. Corduroy trim and a roomy fit keep the workwear DNA intact, but the sharp tailoring and smart pockets make it clear you don’t own any head of cattle.
Best British Barn Coat: Barbour Beaufort Waxed Jacket
Barbour
Beaufort Waxed Jacket
Pros
- Waxed cotton makes it the most weather resistant jacket here
- Excellent functionality (moleskin-lined harnd-warmer pockets, wind cuffs)
- Ability to zip in a quilted lining or snap on a hood (both sold separately)
- Heritage look that ages beautifully
Cons
- Not the classic American barn coat look but same intention
- Requires a re-wax now and then.
What’s all this, then—a Barbour as a barn coat? The Beaufort isn’t cut from the same stiff American canvas, but the brief is identical: a country jacket for tramping through fields, feeding the chickens, or—let’s be honest—making it to the pub. King Charles even reinstated the brand’s Royal Warrant last year (he is the Menswear King, after all). Built long before DWR and Gore-Tex, its waxed cotton shrugs off rain, the oversize corduroy collar blocks the wind, and you can zip in liners or snap on a hood if you feel like accessorizing. Best detail? The little hand-warmer pockets perched above the main ones—perfect for thawing fingers after a day of grouse shooting or a lap of the Lower East Side. Just remember: it will need the occasional re-waxing, but that’s all part of the fun.
Best Barn Coat for Menswear Nerds: Anglo-Italian Cotton Canvas Barn Jacket
Anglo-Italian
Cotton Canvas Barn Jacket
Pros
- Top-notch materials (Italian canvas, suede collar)
- Long enough to cover a tailored jacket
- Rain/wind-resistant
Cons
- Unlined construction means insulation is minimal
- Premium price point
You might know Anglo-Italian for their stylish and understated take on, well, British and Italian tailoring—Pierce Brosnan has been known to wear their suits, if that tells you anything—but don’t overlook its outerwear, which is consistently excellent. The barn jacket is proof: premium Italian canvas, a suede collar, and a cut long enough to slide over a sport coat without looking like you raided your dad’s closet. Every detail feels dialed-in, and the minute you shrug it on, the heft tells you you’re wearing something substantial—an investment piece that means business (and looks it).
More Barn Coats We Love
How We Test and Review Products
Style is subjective, we know—that’s the fun of it. But we’re serious about helping our audience get dressed. Whether it’s the best white sneakers, the flyest affordable suits, or the need-to-know menswear drops of the week, GQ Recommends’ perspective is built on years of hands-on experience, an insider awareness of what’s in and what’s next, and a mission to find the best version of everything out there, at every price point.
Our staffers aren’t able to try on every single piece of clothing you read about on GQ.com (fashion moves fast these days), but we have an intimate knowledge of each brand’s strengths and know the hallmarks of quality clothing—from materials and sourcing, to craftsmanship, to sustainability efforts that aren’t just greenwashing. GQ Recommends heavily emphasizes our own editorial experience with those brands, how they make their clothes, and how those clothes have been reviewed by customers. Bottom line: GQ wouldn’t tell you to wear it if we wouldn’t.
How We Make These Picks
We make every effort to cast as wide of a net as possible, with an eye on identifying the best options across three key categories: quality, fit, and price.
To kick off the process, we enlist the GQ Recommends braintrust to vote on our contenders. Some of the folks involved have worked in retail, slinging clothes to the masses; others have toiled for small-batch menswear labels; all spend way too much time thinking about what hangs in their closets.
We lean on that collective experience to guide our search, culling a mix of household names, indie favorites, and the artisanal imprints on the bleeding-edge of the genre. Then we narrow down the assortment to the picks that scored the highest across quality, fit, and price.
Across the majority of our buying guides, our team boasts firsthand experience with the bulk of our selects, but a handful are totally new to us. So after several months of intense debate, we tally the votes, collate the anecdotal evidence, and emerge with a list of what we believe to be the absolute best of the category right now, from the tried-and-true stalwarts to the modern disruptors, the affordable beaters to the wildly expensive (but wildly worth-it) designer riffs.
Whatever your preferences, whatever your style, there’s bound to be a superlative version on this list for you. (Read more about GQ’s testing process here.)
