You might have an idea of the kind of person who wears a Barbour jacket. They’ve got a dog – a big one. They have a vintage Land Rover Defender with mud up the sides. Maybe they spend the weekend shooting with someone called Bunty. But take some time to look at how people actually wear the brand and suddenly you’re not so sure anymore.

In truth, the link between this specific image and where the brand came from are all at sea. John Barbour established his business in South Shields in 1894, supplying oilskins to sailors and fishermen working in North Sea weather. Motorcycling followed, with the International suit arriving in 1936. Steve McQueen wore Barbour to compete in the 1964 International Six Day Trials. The country jackets came much later: Dame Margaret Barbour designed the Bedale for riding in 1980, followed by the Beaufort in 1983. Barbour had been dressing people for almost a century before those two models arrived.

Royal wearers, including Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana, helped establish its country house credentials. But other figures have found a use for it, too. Daniel Craig wore the Sports jacket as James Bond in Skyfall. Jeremy Allen White wore the Ogston in The Bear. Theo James wears the Corbridge in Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, where looking respectable doesn’t necessarily mean you are. And Claudia Winkleman has brought it into The Traitors wardrobe. For something supposedly a bit fusty, Barbour sure gets a lot of screen time.

“The old-money connotations and links to the royal family helped define its image,” says Matt Field, a retail manager and stylist. You recognise the clothes before you know much about the person wearing them. In The Gentlemen, especially, it’s part of the fun. The jacket suggests they know their way around an estate – what they’re doing there is another matter.

“For some, owning a Barbour is a way of buying into an ideal of British country living, even if the nearest they get to a muddy dog walk is a wet bus stop,” says the menswear content creator Cathal Geary.

However, the fashion consultant Gustav Emil Loft wonders whether younger customers even make that connection anymore. “I’m not sure my generation sees them that way,” he says. “The associations that seem obvious to one customer might barely register with another. They just see a jacket they like.”

And there’s a lot to like when you look properly. Waxed cotton has a slightly crinkled, uneven surface that becomes more interesting with wear. It also holds its shape. “It has a stiffness that I think adds texture and a sculptural silhouette to a look,” Loft says. Over a soft jumper, with a pair of baggy trousers, that structure does quite a lot. Add the corduroy collar, tartan lining, and large ring-pull zip, and you’ve got something recognisable without an enormous logo stitched across the back.

The details are easy to appreciate in everyday use, too. Since becoming a dad, Geary has found the pockets particularly persuasive. “Nappies, wet wipes, bottles, snacks – you name it, it fits,” he says. That leaves both hands free to keep up with his son. You might initially buy a Barbour because you like how it looks, then find yourself wearing it constantly because there’s room to layer underneath, it carries your stuff and it goes with most of what you already wear.

That’s when the attachment starts. The elbows crease, the surface scuffs and the jacket gradually loses its newness. Field prefers one that’s worn in, with “a striking patina or visible mends”. Barbour can repair and re-wax it, a service that appeared in its catalogue in 1921. Once you’ve spent years getting a jacket exactly how you like it, you’re probably not desperate to start again.

If you’re considering your first, all three guys mention the Transport. Field likes its relatively cropped body with high-waisted military fatigues, an Oxford shirt and a mohair sweater. Geary suggests relaxed tan chinos and black penny loafers. Both outfits make a good case for trying the shorter shape, especially if you favour fuller trousers. You probably own the other ingredients.

You can see how it happens, then. You try one on, take it home and start wearing it more than you expected. A few years later, it’s hanging by your door with a repair you keep meaning to get sorted and something you’ve forgotten about in one of the pockets. Turns out you were a Barbour guy after all.