Better than DILLINGER overcoat?

[Ghostsoldier]

Granted, I agree...but John Q. Public won't know the visual differences difference between vintage and repro; it's just a really nice coat, and a lot of folks would love to own it, authentic or not.
Rob

 

[Marc Chevalier]

John Q. Public won't know the visual differences difference between vintage and repro; it's just a really nice coat, and a lot of folks would love to own it, authentic or not.

True.

.

 

[filfoster]

Bundle for a bundle

By the way, the big bucks public enemies-advertised overcoat I purchased a couple of months ago is truly a sight to behold! The material is so luxurious, I am greatly looking forward to the weather dropping here... aaaany day now...

What coat is this?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

What coat is this?

This one, but the eBay listing for it is gone: http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showpost.php?p=841654&postcount=729

.

 

[tonyb]

It's a beaut! And what a steal! I would love to know why overcoats on average often don't go for so much money. Speaking as a NY'er, there's a smaller window of opportunity to leave the house in a vintage wool suit without an overcoat. (Although today's weather was a great occasion to do just that!) The window of colder weather that would require an overcoat is significantly larger. So having a couple of overcoats to switch up wouldn't be out of the question at all. I would have to imagine the reason is there are significantly more vintage collectors in much warmer climates...?

Seems plausible enough. Fewer opportunities to actually wear a garment would lead to a lower demand.

I wonder of it might also be that a long coat comes across a bit too dressy for many modern contexts, and perhaps even costume-y. It's regrettable, but I suspect that for many people long coats conjure images of goth kids.

 

[filfoster]

Long Riders

Seems plausible enough. Fewer opportunities to actually wear a garment would lead to a lower demand.

I wonder of it might also be that a long coat comes across a bit too dressy for many modern contexts, and perhaps even costume-y. It's regrettable, but I suspect that for many people long coats conjure images of goth kids.[/QUOTE]

I wear these in winter and they look fine here. It's cold enough and I'm old enough not to look out of place wearing them. But I think you are right for younger people.
I have just gotten two in the last month: A wonderful darker nubby herringbone topcoat, about 45" long, and a grey tweed 'atomic fleck' type, about 46" long, both I think from the mid-50's. These and the obsessively bashed Fed IV's are the only reasons to welcome winter. Well, and resuming 'brown spirits' consumption.

 

[tonyb]

I wear these in winter and they look fine here. It's cold enough and I'm old enough not to look out of place wearing them. But I think you are right for younger people.
I have just gotten two in the last month: A wonderful darker nubby herringbone topcoat, about 45" long, and a grey tweed 'atomic fleck' type, about 46" long, both I think from the mid-50's. These and the obsessively bashed Fed IV's are the only reasons to welcome winter. Well, and resuming 'brown spirits' consumption.

It ain't likely I'll ever be mistaken for a goth kid, either, seeing how I am now routinely asked if I qualify for the senior discount. (Those youngsters behind the cash registers apparently think I look older than I think I look.)

If you have the closet space, you might want to snap up those old coats while the prices are still low. I just can't see prices getting much lower (provided we don't suffer a genuine economic meltdown), so it would seem they have nowhere to go but up. Like all this vintage stuff, they just ain't making any more of it.

 

[mike]

I just can't see prices getting much lower (provided we don't suffer a genuine economic meltdown), so it would seem they have nowhere to go but up.

Did you just jinx the country, if not the world with that?

But seriously folks, I imagine it depends on the area. In NYC an average commuter would not look out of place at all in a single breasted vintage overcoat. Double breasted, back belted/pleated, hip-area knife pleats, etc... would probably be pushing it if you're not dressing to be the fashion center of attention at work.

You never know though. I have a super warm/heavy, double breasted, belted CC41 dark blue overcoat that I think I'm going to sell this year. I wore it anytime it got to single digits to and from work and never once had anyone mention that I stepped out of a noir film or something. Good sign!

 

[tonyb]

Maybe in Minneapolis, eh? At least a person would have plenty of opportunity to wear one there.

I agree, Mike. I never feel at all out of place in a long coat, even a 60-plus-year-old one, double breasted, with big ol' lapels and wide shoulders and a somewhat pinched waist. It's a sexy coat, man. It was a handsome look back in the 1940s, and it's a handsome look now. And if one person in 20 knew it was older than its wearer, I'd be surprised.

No expertise in this corner, but it seems that coats just don't seem so subject to the whims of fashion. Maybe that's because they were seen, by people of modest mean, anyway, as "practical" garments, whose primary purpose was to keep a person warm on his way to and from the home and workplace, where they were promptly removed and hung up.

I speculate that the reason I come across so many old coats in such fine condition is because it just doesn't get all that cold out here and for that reason a coat is truly optional on all but a few days of the year. I happen to have a few, and I like to wear them, but there isn't a one of them that will get worn more than a dozen times in a year. At this rate of wear, they'll still be in fine condition when not even my heaviest coat would keep me warm.

 

[Hal]

Quite a lot of true overcoats (including double-breasted ones) are seen in cities on commuters in the UK. But our winters are milder than in NYC (climate change seems to be making them milder still), and perhaps because of this there is an unfortunate tendency to wear short outdoor-pursuits-type anoraks and Barbour jackets over city suits, and coatlessness is not uncommon even in weather which is very cold indeed by British standards; I hope these casualising tendencies don't increase! On the other hand, our summers are cool, and a long cotton raincoat can be well within the parameters of comfort on a chilly summer evening as well as serving as a spring/autumn topcoat.

In NYC an average commuter would not look out of place at all in a single breasted vintage overcoat. Double breasted, back belted/pleated... would probably be pushing it.

I never feel at all out of place in a long coat...It was a handsome look back in the 1940s, and it's a handsome look now...I happen to have a few, and I like to wear them, but there isn't a one of them that will get worn more than a dozen times in a year.

Both these quotations strike a chord with me. I actually feel smarter out-of-doors in a long coat than in a suit alone, and welcome opportunities to wear one - I think one "walks tall" in one.

 

[filfoster]

Long Riders

Just got this one-8th one down from the top. http://www.americanvintageclassics.com/jackcoats.html

Already have one like the bold herringbone above it. When, if ever, were those popular?