Cordings was founded in 1839 by John Charles Cording, who opened his first shop on the Strand selling waterproof outerwear made with the newly developed rubberised Mackintosh fabric. The company relocated to its current Piccadilly address in 1877, was granted a royal warrant as waterproofers to the future King George V in 1909, and is credited with creating the covert coat and adapting horse-blanket checks into the Tattersall shirt. It was struggling financially by the early 2000s until musician Eric Clapton acquired a partial stake in December 2003, after which it added a women's line and an online shop.