The History of Nigel Cabourn Everest Parka
Has this £3,000 jacket ever been to Everest?
The Everest Parka by Nigel Cabourn is considered to be one of the holy grails of #menswear hall of fame. This ultimate winter jacket seems to have it all:
The beautiful story behind it. The parka is inspired by the real jackets that Edmund Hillary used in his ascend to Everest in 1953 and the Trans-Antarctic expedition in 1955–1958.
Top-notch materials: the finest goose down filling, sheepskin neck lining, coyote fur hood trimming, Ventile L34 shell.
Highest quality and pretty rare British production by the PHD factory that specializes in professional extreme cold weather made-to-order gear.
A price of roughly £3,000. Breathtaking indeed.
Not only is the parka a highly sought-after article of clothing among menswear aficionados, but it’s impossible to underestimate its impact on the designer himself.
«I was pretty much on the bones of my arse in 2000. I was doing terrible.» — said Nigel Cabourn in an interview with Vestoj
‘The Ascent of Cabourn‘ collection basically transformed the whole designer’s career getting him out the mud in 2003. Its iconic silhouettes still drive the brand’s success 20 years later.
‘The Ascent of Cabourn‘ collection consisted of 12 items. According to Nigel, one for each member of the 1953 Everest expedition. This is the first of the many discrepancies in the legend. Wikipedia lists 14 participants, while Edmund Hillary himself remembers 13 western members in an interview 20 years later.
The real number of participants in the 1953 expedition falls in the range between 400 and 700 including Sherpas and porters. Edmund Hillary compares the ascent to a pyramid: «The two men who reach the summit are completely dependent on the combined effort of all those involved lower down.»
According to the plan, the last section and the ascent of Everest were supposed to be undertaken by Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans. However, due to exhaustion and oxygen problems, the climbers had to turn back, falling just 100 meters short of the summit. The next attempt was made by Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. For the latter, it was already the seventh attempt to conquer the highest point on the planet. And it was Tenzing who ended up in the first photograph taken on the summit of Everest — Edmund Hillary forgot not only to take a picture of himself but also to tie the flag of his native New Zealand to the ice ax.
Nigel Cabourn dedicated the Everest Parka to Sir Edmund Hillary. But did he really wear a similar jacket on that expedition? Some say that Edmund Hillary climbed mount Everest in a blue parka, and then conquered the South Pole in an orange one several years later. To add even more confusion to an already perplexing story, it's worth remembering that Nigel Cabourn has another statement jacket — the Antarctic Parka.
According to the descriptions on Nigel Cabourn’s web store, the Everest Parka is inspired by the ascent of mount Everest and the Antarctic Parka takes inspiration from the Trans-Antarctic expedition. “Inspiration“ is the key word here. Let’s dive deeper.
The Everest Parka was prototyped after the jacket that Edmund Hillary wore during the Trans-Antarctic expedition. We can easily track it down on historical photographs.
Nigel Cabourn likes to tell the story of how he went to New Zealand to see the original jacket:
I actually found out that Sir Hillary’s Everest parka still exists, in a museum in Christchurch, New Zealand. I couldn’t get off the plane quick enough to get to the fucking museum! When I saw the Everest parka – well it’s actually the Antarctica parka. I tell everybody it’s the Everest parka, but actually he went across the Antarctica in it. I’ve just rolled it all into one. Everyone thinks he went up the Everest in a red parka, but it was a blue one actually. [Laughs] Source: Vestoj
You can even see the original parka in action in the documentary about the expedition:
Now that we know that Nigel Cabourn’s Everest Parka is made after the jacket that Edmund Hillary wore in the Trans-Antarctic expedition, the remaining question is what did he wear during the ascent of mount Everest. Was it the Antarctic parka?
In the photographs from the Everest expedition we can see Edmund Hillary wearing a blue jacket:
On a closer look, the jacket turns out to be just an external shell that the mountaineer wore over other layers:
The blue anorak is made from Wyncol D.711 material, developed by Aquascutum. This dense cotton and nylon blend protected climbers from cuts and wind, but not cold. In order not to freeze, expedition participants wore down jackets, sweaters, shirts, and thermal underwear underneath the anorak.
It turns out that there was no Everest Parka during the ascent of Everest! And the Antarctic Parka is just a Nigel Cabourn’s design based on the Trans-Antarctic expedition jacket and the Royal Air Force parka.
Does it mean that the forever-young Nigel Cabourn messed up history? Because the brand still confuses the facts from time to time. The truth is that the designer managed to create a cult item of impeccable quality out of a somewhat made-up legend and sell it for £3,000. That’s what I call mastery.