The Best Men's Trench Coat in 2026, According to GQ Editors

The best men's trench coat is more than a layer of protection against inclement weather. Over a decade ago, I bought my first version from the now-resurgent mall brand Banana Republic. I was tired of sporting cheaply made, garbage-bag-like nylon jackets, and hated getting soaked from the waist down. (Nothing says “I’ve given up” quite like walking around with soggy thighs).

The trench coat’s longer, more traditional double-breasted design—complete with the requisite wide lapels, epaulets, storm flaps, and belt—really tickled my outerwear fancy, and I haven’t looked back since. To help replicate that formative experience, GQ Recommends went deep on the absolute best men's trench coat for stylish fellas of every stripe, each one ready and raring to stylishly dodge rain, snow, and all manner of sludge for years to come.

Best Trench Coat for Most People: J.Crew Rivington Trench Coat

It's not as long as some of you might like, but for the details, reliability, and price point, we're happy to call J.Crew's Rivington trench the best option for most people. The 100% cotton twill is a solid-feeling midweight that has a natural non-synthetic hand, and it’s finished with a fluorocarbon- and PFC-free water-repellent coating for protection against showers.

It also comes lined for comfort, with raglan sleeves for a soft shoulder and ease of motion, and a belt for a better fit and bonus style points. We like that the Rivington isn’t overwrought with vestigial buttons, flaps, or epaulets like the OG trench coats, but that it’s also not so replete of details to make it boring. It has drape, movement, and just the right amount of design to make it stand out without shouting. Plus, for just under $500, it really is nice value for an overcoat too.

Best Budget Trench Coat: Abercrombie Trench Coat

Honestly, if you didn't tell us the price of this one, I'd believe you that it cost a lot more. Made from mostly polyester, it might not have the soft texture of a twill-forward design, but that also makes it far stronger and more durable against raindrops, snowballs, you name it. And for that low price point, you get a high number of details: A belt, buttoned pockets, hidden interior check pockets, adjustable cuffs, even some epaulets. If you’re sure enough of the trench coat's place in your wardrobe to put the down payment on a Burberry, this $190 option should be your first choice.

Best Upgrade Trench Coat: Burberry Cotton-Gabardine Trench Coat

We’ve mentioned the brand multiple times before even getting to it, which tells you something about the weight Burberry carries in the trench coat universe. The Holy Grail of trenches has been in production for over 100 years—Thomas Burberry literally patented the gabardine fabric for these coats—and today it comes with a two-year warranty, and lifetime repair service (for a fee after those two years pass).

This version, in a beautiful darker shade, has handsome epaulets and a generous storm vent, as well as the adjustable belt and cuffs, which you can tighten to protect that fancy watch you’ve earned. This is the trench coat that can hop from degenerate Pierpoint bankers to art dealers (and yes, even podcasters) without missing a beat.

Best Trench Coat for the British Countryside: Barbour Solway Wax Trench Coat

Trench coats come in more flavors than you think. And while most of them have a sort of city-leaning taste to them, there are some that lean a little more into the countryside and eschew the cockamamy tech-y waterproof coatings and futuristic fabrics of today’s trenches. For something more down-to-earth and rugged, we love Barbour. (You’re likely familiar with Barbour’s English coat bonafides in the form of the blazer-length Bedale jacket.)

Behold, the gloriously long, gloriously waxy Burghley wax jacket. It features a grip of roomy patch snap pockets, a pair of handwarmer pockets, corduroy accents, and an attached hood to keep your precious little dome dry and warm. While the DNA seems to have splices of a barn coat, parka, and a trench coat, we’re fine with lumping it in the other trench coats—especially given how stylish it is.

Best Minimalist Trench Coat: Oliver Spencer Lothian Twill Trench Coat

Honestly, we might have saved the best winner until last here. Not only does Oliver Spencer's Lothian Twill trench come in a generous longer length, but it also pairs the comfort of the classic trench (raglan sleeves, plenty of room) with the sharpness of a more modern design (concealed fastenings, not much visible hardware.) The fabric is also weighted, without any stretch, meaning this'll have the hefty presence of an heirloom item from the day you take it for its first drizzle-deflecting spin.

More Trench Coats We Love

How the Trench Coat Got Its Name

Like so many icons of everyday menswear, the trench coat's story starts with the military. Its exact origins remain a matter of insider-y dispute, but credit is certainly due to one Thomas Burberry, who invented a waterproof, breathable fabric known as gabardine and used it to design coats for British army officers fightings in the trenches of the early 1900s. (Hence the name!) That material, and Burberry’s sketches, became a template that still informs the coat's design to this day.

Why Should You Buy A Trench Coat

Over the decades, the trench coat has transcended its military origins to become a trusty staple of civilian dressing. Simply put, no other coat covers as much of the body without overheating it, or manages to be both water-repellent and presentable enough to meet the in-laws. And while the basic appeal of the trench coat hasn’t changed much in a century, more brands than ever are putting their own spin on the style. Legacy acts like Burberry and Mackintosh may still run the game, but hot on their heels are a series of upstart brands just desperate to cloak your fall wardrobe of jeans and hefty-ass crewneck sweatshirts with their gabardine garms.

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.)