The Mallory tweed myth, tested: the 1924 Everest outer layers were Burberry gabardine
Burberry (@burberry) shows at London Fashion Week, and the fabric the house is built on was doing high altitude work a century ago. Thomas Burberry's gabardine went to the South Pole with Roald Amundsen in 1911 and to Antarctica with Ernest Shackleton, and George Mallory wore a gabardine jacket and plus fours on Everest in 1924. The Mallory Clothing Replica Project ran from 2002 to 2006, directed by Mike Parsons and Professor Mary B Rose of Lancaster University, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Pasold Research Fund, with scientific work from the universities of Southampton, Derby, Leeds and Lancaster. Two suits were made, one for exhibition and one to Graham Hoyland's measurements. Hoyland, a television producer whose great uncle Howard Somervell was on the 1924 expedition, tested it at base camp and above advanced base camp on the north side. Mallory's climbing partner in 1924 was Sandy Irvine, who had fitted zip fasteners to his own clothing.