The party conference season always reminds me how much I miss Michael Foot. I'm not talking oratory here, but sartorial policy. You may remember that the white-haired Labour leader attracted much criticism for wearing a duffel coat to the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday.

His choice of apparel was deemed inappropriate on account of its informality. But Foot was a man of letters with more than a whiff of the academic about him, so the choice of a coat that was a student favourite seems logical enough.

To me, though, Foot's duffel symbolises something much more than a sartorial tic; it represents a time when politicians weren't afraid to be seen to be themselves. As politics in this country moves towards a middle ground in terms of policy, politicians move towards a middle ground in terms of how they look. Wouldn't it be great if just once David Cameron took to the dispatch box in the Sloane uniform of stripy shirt, pastel-coloured V-neck, cords and Gucci loafers, or Gordon Brown appeared as the Heathcliff he recently likened himself to, windswept in riding coat and breeches? This may not materially help us to tell our Left from our Right, but it would certainly add some character to Prime Minister's Questions.

Yet if either leader were looking for a coat that straddles the political spectrum, and therefore occupies the consensus no man's land in between, they could do worse than adopt the good old duffel. You see, notwithstanding the giant shadow that Foot cast in the garment, it is in fact a mercurial piece of outerwear, which gives off many contradictory signals.

The duffel, as Foot will have known, was widely associated with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Yet it has solid military form as an item issued by the Royal Navy in the two world wars. It became also, of course, the signature garment of Field Marshal Montgomery. Then there is the national provenance: British surely? Well, yes and no. One John Partridge of this isle did start to produce duffels in 1890, and yet the name derives from the felt-like, weatherresistant fabric that takes its name from the Belgian town of Duffel, which began making the heavy woollen cloth in the 17th century.

And what about this favourite of radicals on and off campus also having been made for the Princess Royal's family and the Prince of Wales? Or that comedians such as Dudley Moore and Alan Davies adopted the look? Or that rockers of such different sensibilities as Oasis and Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos have worn it?

Paradox is, of course, what often makes fashion interesting. As the designer Paul Smith once pointed out, if a long-haired Mick Jagger wears a regimental mess jacket, suddenly a symbol of the establishment becomes a badge of grooviness. And it is in this spirit of gentle subversion that today we find the somewhat geeky duffel taken up by fashion designers such as Smith himself, who has one in his current Paul Smith Jeans collection, and Alexander McQueen, who has a lovely green wool and shearling model for this winter.

But for my money, the most interesting development on this front is the collaboration between Gloverall, duffel-makers since 1951, and the super-trendy Dover Street Market in London. This has resulted in the “Montgomery” duffel being rendered in seven exclusive bright Smarties colours. Keep in mind, however, that if you go for a blue one, you may end up resembling not so much a great leader of the Western world as a Peruvian bear found at Paddington station.