Apparent WW1 flight coat

[John Warr]

There is a store on Henrietta St, London UK which has a quite interesting coat in the window. The basic construction looks a bit Irvin-like but this is a coat, about knee length, not a jacket and may well date back to WW1. Does anyone have any information on these garments ? The storefront is here:

http://www.cabourn.com/media/wysiwyg/article1.jpg

Coat on right hand side.

 

[Edward]

Hard to tell from this photo, but I though Cabourn's stuff was all new, and in the "vaguely inspired by" rather than "repro" camp... Can't see anything on his website that looks like what appears in your photo, but by way of example here's their jacket "inspired by" a CC Irvin... http://www.cabourn.com/men/clothing/coastal-commando.html

Doesn't do it for me, but that's subjective. I'm hardly likely to be troubling them anytime soon at those prices anyhow!

That long coat could be one of the things that AL produced for them. I know they had some preproduction samples for sale a while back (the ones weirdly labelled - "Nigel Cabourn, Made in England".... which were manufactured in Selkirk, Scotland....), I vaguely remember them being longish, though the only ones on the Cabourn site now are B7 parka types, very different from this.

 

[rocketeer]

Pockets look like those on the Swedish army heavy canvas and sheepskin coats that crop up now and again. Same size[pockets] too.

 

[herringbonekid]

the coat in the window is almost certainly a vintage coat (from the Cabourn archives) used for the window display rather than one of Cabourn's made garments.
it's clearly seen some wear and Cabourn doesn't do artificial distressing.

 

[Dumpster Diver]

Its really cool.

 

[aswatland]

The coat in the window appears to be an extended Irvin. I have seen several of these over the years. They were most likely factory made as private purchase items before the War. The ones I have seen were knee length.

 

[John Warr]

The coat in the window appears to be an extended Irvin. I have seen several of these over the years. They were most likely factory made as private purchase items before the War. The ones I have seen were knee length.

Actually that was my thought. I have a couple of rather poor pictures of it, mostly centred round the damaged area for obvious reasons, but the general method of construction from what I can see suggests the Irvin design. I hope to get a better look at it. It is an interesting garment.

 

[Graemsay]

The coat has a button-up, rather than zip, front. I was told it dates from the First World War. It doesn't look like an Irvin.

Apparently the damage has been done by putting it up in the window each morning and taking it down at night. They're looking at getting it repaired.

 

[John Warr]

The coat has a button-up, rather than zip, front. I was told it dates from the First World War. It doesn't look like an Irvin.

Apparently the damage has been done by putting it up in the window each morning and taking it down at night. They're looking at getting it repaired.

I have heard of similar WW1 coats but I don't know anyone who has actually seen one. I imagine they would have been private purchases in 14-18. A lot of officer's equipment was - one only has too look at contemporary advertisements to see the scale of it.

 

[Smithy]

I have heard of similar WW1 coats but I don't know anyone who has actually seen one. I imagine they would have been private purchases in 14-18. A lot of officer's equipment was - one only has too look at contemporary advertisements to see the scale of it.

Whilst it's more difficult to pinpoint WWI flying coats there are some major factors which can determine if it is one.

Yes, whilst it's true that most flying coats were private purchase, there were a couple of issue coats which the RFC/RNAS used, but this coat does not appear to be one of those, most specifically the 1915 specified RFC thigh length flying coat which was the most common issued item, the other issued items were far rarer.

The vast majority of Allied air force flying coats used (mostly through companies such as Burberry, Gamages, etc) were not sheepskin lined. They were usually blanket or camel hair lined and sometimes rarely with a fur collar, and mostly mid-calf length. Sheepskin lined flying coats were exceedingly rare - at least with the Allied forces. They can be seen with Central Power fliers but once again they were not the norm.

Although the picture is small, I would almost certainly wager that it's not a WWI era coat worn by a member of the RFC/RNAS or RAF. There is the possibly that it might be from a Central Powers aviator but once again I would be loathe to say that definitively.

Nice, interesting coat but might be pushing things to say that it is a WWI flying coat.