Bespoke Overcoat

[Holdfast]

How about the original color: cream?

Unfortunately, too Noël Coward for today.

As if that's ever stopped anyone here before.

I've been >this< close to buying a cream overcoat a couple of times. Only resisted because I've run out of room to store stuff neatly and it's a "once or twice a year" sort of item.

Regarding the coat length debate, I like a longer length generally. Especially when unbuttoned, it gives coats a swirly, cape-lite effect when walking. Who wouldn't want that?

I'm a short guy, and really don't think it matters much what height you are when picking a coat length. In a standing-still photo, it does make a visual difference, yes. But in motion, I think both silhouettes can look good. Shorter lengths create a trimmer, younger, or edgier look (depending on the rest of the style details); longer lengths create a grander, more dramatic, flowing look.

 

[Manton]

Cream OC reminds me of 1920s gangsters.

 

[Reevolving]



Cream OC reminds me of 1920s gangsters.

Any and all pinstripes remind me of 1920s gangsters

 

[Holdfast]

Cream OC reminds me of 1920s gangsters.

One of the characters in The Untouchables wore a pretty cool cream coat. Can't remember if it was De Niro's Capone or one of his henchmen. De Niro certainly had quite a fun camel-coloured coat in that movie too.

 

[dopey]



How about the original color: cream?
...

Unfortunately, too Noël Coward for today.

A forum luminary gave me a camel-colored cashmere Aquascutum version of this that he bought in the 80s.

 

[KObalto]

I love the coat Despos posted with the sash. Can't find the pic right now. Quite a few on here did not like it.
EDIT: Here it is:

 

[Sander]

That NC pic looks so great.

Have to agree though; I wouldn't wear it today. Gathers too much attention.

Has anyone seen the documentary about Prince Charles (The Green Prince or something?) - he wears a camel colored coat that looks absolutely great; just the right shade especially. Many shades of camel make caucasian faces look too red or too pale.

 

[KObalto]



A forum luminary gave me a camel-colored cashmere Aquascutum version of this that he bought in the 80s.

Very generous of Reev.

 

[poorsod]



Cream OC reminds me of 1920s gangsters.

This is gangster?
I clearly don't watch enough old movies.

 

[Manton]

That looks gray to me, not cream.

 

[Despos]

I love the coat Despos posted with the sash. Can't find the pic right now. Quite a few on here did not like it.
EDIT: Here it is:

This an excerpt from the article that inspired this coat

"The most distinguished garment of all is the polo coat itself. Double-breasted and patch-pocketed, with a half-belted back, frame pockets, set-in sleeves with cuffs, and swelled seams, the camel-hair polo is the aristocrat of topcoats.
At the end of the 19th century, polo players began to devise a casual robe-like coat to throw over their shoulders between periods of play (called chukkers) in a match, to keep warm while waiting for the game to resume. At first any old sports jacket or overcoat was pressed into service, but then players started to develop ideas about how the coat should function, and these ideas came to be called "wait" coats by English tailors. Early on they were indeed just like bathrobes: an enveloping blanket-like garment with wide sleeves, and a sash closure instead of buttons. In the 1920s, when international polo matches began being held on Long Island, the English wait coats did not go unnoticed.
There was definite swagger and cavalier deshabille about them, combining as they did the comfort of a robe, the warmth of a topcoat, and the aura of an expensive and elegant sport. Highly appealing to undergraduates of the era, these new "polo" coats were soon seen sauntering down Princeton's Nassau Street, and around New Haven and Cambridge. By 1930 the polo coat had evolved to what it is today, and - as sure a sartorial barometer of success as you could find -- it was the most popular outer coat at the Yale-Princeton football game that year.
It's success can be accounted for by the peculiarly American penchant for clothes that combine elegance with comfort, that casual dressiness that has always typified the college campus. It also puts polo gear in the forefront of the casual revolution we are now experiencing."

Cream OC reminds me of 1920s gangsters.

This is gangster?
I clearly don't watch enough old movies.

Have a piece of double faced cloth in the shop, will make it up in this style but unlined and with a surprise twist. Thanks for posting this.

 

[mack11211]

Chris: Is this particular kind of polo coat -- belted and without buttons -- also called a wrap coat?

I sold one like it several years ago made bespoke by KFS circa 1950. The way the fronts hung together even with the sash undone was very artful.

 

[Despos]

Probably better known as a wrap. This was the genesis of the polo but isn't often seen and probably no one would realize a connection to the Polo if they didn't know the history of it.

 

[dopey]



Probably better known as a wrap. This was the genesis of the polo but isn't often seen and probably no one would realize a connection to the Polo if they didn't know the history of it.

Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) wears a great version of a wrap coat, in white, in the beginning of Singing in the Rain. In fact, that movie has a lot of the over the top Hollywood dressing veddy English look.

 

[Despos]

Good to know d. I peruse Marx Brothers movies for my style cues. Zeppo is my fashion mentor.