From glam macs to Mission: Impossible, America loves London fog | Catherine Shoard
by Catherine Shoard from on (#FQ9K)
The apparently unquenchable American appetite for English pollution started with a Baltimore raincoat company in 1923. Now Tom Cruise is joining in
In 1923 a 16-year-old called Israel Myers set up a raincoat company in Baltimore. He called it Londontown. The firm jogged along profitably enough, supplying the US navy and becoming popular in Philadelphia on account of its special patented liners.
In 1954, they had a rethink. Myers changed the name to London Fog. Suddenly, the anoraks flew off the hangers at Saks. "Every once in a while," wrote the New York Times at the time, "a name comes along for a product that is exactly right. It describes the product exactly and does a selling job that even the legendary 10,000 words cannot do. Such a one is London Fog."
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