Varieties of overcoat...

[Sin Khan]

Thanks Alan

No, my user name came from a customer of my folks business. I used to be a technical support representative for my families small software company and one of our customers had that name. I liked it at the time and used it for various forums and what not. It was nothing really special, just something that i thought sounded "cool". I have grown since then, and now I would like to change my screen name to something more meaningfull. Perhaps I will make another account and ask that this one be deleated.

I am thrilled to know that people are working hard to make the great clothing of the past and I would love to be a part of that. I am learning to make cloths myself, but I am a long way off from creating my own patterns and creating suits and coats. I haven't even made a shirt yet, and that is the project for another thread right now.

I think that your team is right in wanting to make trench coats. Just look at Burberry's history. Making trench coats is mostly all they are known for in the general publics eye. I think that you should go this way completely. As well, I would also try to make if you could other singularly important items that other manufacturers are known for like classic leather motorcycle jackets and classic bomber jackets as well. I think that if you had only those three items of original quality and function then your company would have all the business that it needed with the right amount of targeted marketing.

How can I get involved? I couldn't help for asking. So many of us here on this forum really do love clothing design and creation. In the book of Genesis in the Bible it is said that God made leather cloths for Adam before he was sent out of the Garden of Eden. I think that for some of us, we would want nothing more than to make clothing as well just like God the creator of the universe did for Adam.

 

[David Bresch]

The coat you admired at Magnoli is a raglan coat with fly front. This type is not manufactured RTW, but I had one custom-made from tweed. The Duke sports this type coat in one photo I have. A similar coat without fly front can be seen in Esky illustrations.

I wish there were something equivalent to Fedora Lounge (for hats), for coats. I resent the fascism of modern coat design, so ridiculously monotonous as to be nauseating. And I am not talking about the absence of ridiculous costume pieces like capes, merely the reluctance of anyone to wear a coat like the raglan coat first mentioned, or anything else that isn't a polo coat or button-front single breasted, from camel hair or black wool (or salt and pepper, the most daring one can find).

 

[Feraud]

Here is a recent addition to my collection. The jacket is heavy and the material is dense.

Sleeve detail

Epaulette

Labels

 

[scotrace]

Fascinating thread. I've picked up as many questions as answers.

Earlier this year, I picked up a really big, thick and heavy coat that, from this thread, must be a polo coat. It's too big for me but I'll wear it anyway as it's just too great to not wear. I didn't know what to call it before this thread caught my eye.

I had thought that a covert coat would always have hidden buttons (and be single breasted). Now I know better.

Can anyone speak to the very common coat collar style, the "military collar?" Marc began a thread on it - I'll go see if I can find it. (edit: I was wrong. It was about Loden coats) Is the use of such a collar restricted to certain styles?

 

[Edward]

Feraud - Gorgeous coat!

Alan... speaking with my work-head on, I'd say you're right to be careful re copying a design, even historical, from a name which is still active. Your best chocie would be to go for something in the same vein but design-wise sufficiently a mish-mash of contemporary styles to the original that it would be marked out as something else.

FWIW, if somebody could produce a trenchcoat of the quality of vintage Burberrys, in full cottom with the winter lining, and in a range of colours for a lot less than the price of a current equivalent, I'd be surprised if it didn't sell well. Trenchcoats by now are so generic, I don't see there being any design issues. It is a move away from the riding coats, though.

 

[Alan Eardley]

I had thought that a covert coat would always have hidden buttons (and be single breasted). Now I know better.

Scott,

I have found that when describing clothing it is best to avoid using 'always' - always.

A covert coat, being a close relative of the fox hunting jacket (but longer) has some of the same features - so it usually has hidden buttons. It also usually has the hem and sleeve stitching. A polo coat or Chesterfield is usually double breasted with peaked lapels.

When someone decides to combine the two features (possibly because they like them both) who is to deny them? The result is a hybrid, like Marc's excellent example. Part Chesterfield, part covert coat. In a mule, where does the horse end and the donkey begin?

Alan

 

[Alan Eardley]

Feraud - Gorgeous coat!

Alan... speaking with my work-head on, I'd say you're right to be careful re copying a design, even historical, from a name which is still active. Your best chocie would be to go for something in the same vein but design-wise sufficiently a mish-mash of contemporary styles to the original that it would be marked out as something else.

FWIW, if somebody could produce a trenchcoat of the quality of vintage Burberrys, in full cottom with the winter lining, and in a range of colours for a lot less than the price of a current equivalent, I'd be surprised if it didn't sell well. Trenchcoats by now are so generic, I don't see there being any design issues. It is a move away from the riding coats, though.

Edward,

Yes, I agree. Unfortunately my colleagues don't see the danger. One's view is that since he worked for the company for nearly forty years he can regard its rights as his own. He can't, of course.

I'm not so sure about the demand for a 'real' trench coat or riding coat. Vintage items are so substantial - stiff, heavy and awkward to store when not being worn - that I don't think many people who lead modern lifestyles would live with one. This is why the modern trench coat is the way it is. A convenient, foldable shower coat. Not many people are out in all weathers when travelling or working.

Equally, I don't see much of a market among re-enactors compared to military gear (apart from WW1 perhaps), the 'Goodwood' crew only come out in Summer, I can't see the 'swing dance' crowd taking to the floor in one, vintage motorcyclists would undoubtedly prefer a Black Prince and it seems horse riders are in the process of abandoning the stock coat.

So, I'd like one, you'd like one, a few people on the forum would like one, but I don't think we would sell enough of them (even at a third of Burberry's price) to cover our costs. Think of the shipping costs - a real trench coat is heavier than a B-3 or Irvin jacket. You could probably buy a mall 'trench coat' locally for what the transatlantic airmail/insurance cost would be.

It's an appealing idea, and I'd love to go for it but with a marketing head on, I'm wary.

Alan

 

[Starius]

I found this a while back.

http://www.surplusandadventure.com/ishop/800/shopscr189.html

Wow, I love that coat!

Too bad shipping to me costs the same amount as the coat...

 

[Alan Eardley]

Wow, I love that coat!

Too bad shipping to me costs the same amount as the coat...

Hey! I know this place well. It's just down the road from a place called North Piddle. (Seriously).

Alan

 

[mdavids2000]

The 1930 overcoat

 

[Edward]

Edward,


I'm not so sure about the demand for a 'real' trench coat or riding coat.
Alan

Good points, I see what you mean. I guess it is too much of a niche market when you put it that way. I always think it's a shame, myself, to kill a vintage look, or any other carefully constructed ensemble, with a coat that looks all wrong with it, but I can certainly understand why most folks would probably take the attitude more of "why bother when it's only for travelling and noone will see it once you're inside...".