Show Us Your OVERCOATS

[Sloan1874]

Love the herring bone one. You look as if you could be a character in an H.P. Lovecraft novel!

 

[herringbonekid]

I'd say maybe later-mid twenties to early-mid thirties.

add 30 years; late 50s - early 60s.

 

[Evan Everhart]

Number 3/4? Next; Black 100% wool basic top-coat. 3 button fastening, trim cut, slightly skirted fit, diagonally slash pockets, no exterior breast pocket, peaked lapel, high fastening, above the knee length, buttoned cuffs as on a suit's jacket, one interior breast pocket. trim fleecy finish to the fabric. black lining with gray and black diagonally striped piped edging to the lining. No label.
Full front view

Pocket close up detail shot (sorry for the photo quality, this coat is blacker than black and the lighting is terrible in my room)

Front button detail shot

Close up shot of the collar and lapels.

Close up shot of the sleeve finishing with buttons

Full frontal view as worn (silhouette view)

 

[Evan Everhart]

Not with the shoulder structuring the way that it is or the boldness of the herring-bone weave or the label. I have coats that are almost identical in basic conceptual style that my grandfather left me. They all without fail have much more boxy and roomy shoulders, even with their raglan construction, also the elbows lay differently on the older over-coats than they do on later ones. A third of my over-coats are from my grandfather and his are almost all from the 50s and 60s with the exception of one or two from Europe just after the war. I know about the shoulders here.

 

[Evan Everhart]

I LOVE LOVECRAFT!!!!!!!! Yes! Thank you sir! Glad you like it too. It's my baby. I just wish it was a bit colder in Southern California than it is....I've got another heavy-weight charcoal gray herring-bone model, DB, but with black fur lining and collar with brown leather buttons but it's so hot I can't stand wearing it here. It's for horse-riding. I usually wear my herring-bone model with my green herring-bone tweed suit, a buff waist-coat, and tan leather ankle boots with a detachable collar and bow-tie for when I go to the museum or country themed anything, or polo matches.

 

[Sloan1874]

I LOVE LOVECRAFT!!!!!!!! Yes! Thank you sir! Glad you like it too. It's my baby. I just wish it was a bit colder in Southern California than it is....I've got another heavy-weight charcoal gray herring-bone model, DB, but with black fur lining and collar with brown leather buttons but it's so hot I can't stand wearing it here. It's for horse-riding. I usually wear my herring-bone model with my green herring-bone tweed suit, a buff waist-coat, and tan leather ankle boots with a detachable collar and bow-tie for when I go to the museum or country themed anything, or polo matches.

These are all very 'northern European' items. I salute your persistence with the style!

 

[Evan Everhart]

Number 5/6? Anyway, this one's a beauty, Brooks Brothers. Charcoal-gray medium scale herring-bone, flapped hip pockets, diagonal exterior breast-pocket, fly front, 3 button, notched lapel, no cuff detailing, 1 interior breast pocket. As always ultra discrete BB classic; the only label or marking is the little loop tag by the collar. Classical Minimalistic Perfection.
Interior collar view with only label which reads Brooks Brothers, "346"

Close up shot of lapel and breast pocket. Notice over-stitched detailing to lapel and breast pocket?

Horizontal flapped hip pocket, also with discrete over-stitching

Full frontal view of coat with pocket scarf in place.

Full view of coat as worn (in all pictures, the top-coats are worn with a pale gray Glen-Urquhart plaid sb suit with inverted pleated and cuffed trouser suit, white Natty shirt with 7" spear-point collar and French cuffs, and tan pebble grain pig-skin closed laced wing-tips)

 

[Evan Everhart]

Thank you sir! I do Love traditional gentleman's clothing. It's what I was raised on really. We also need to get more people to post pictures of their favourite over-coats! I Love over-coats!

 

[Guttersnipe]

1. If differences in cloth and construction do not speak to the quality of the garment, what does?

2. Comparing a heavy wool overcoat issued by the military with a heavy wool overcoat sold in a retail store on Main Street is perfectly valid, at least in ares of the world where weather matters.

My point is that military coats are different animals and should not be compared to civilian coats. Just as a hand sewn Oxxford camel hair polo coat would not hold up to the rigors of military use, a military coat machine made with coarse, stiff, heavy cloth would be undesirable for civilian use. The characteristics that are a plus for military demands are a negative for civilian use where comfort and style trumps function.

Regarding point 1, the density or weight of a jacketing doesn't necessarily speak to its quality at all; reprocessed wool (i.e., recycled virgin wool, from which the term "shoddy" derives) can be made quite dense.

Regarding point 2, A.C. is quite right. Military overcoats and greatcoats are mass produced, machine sewn, and often have very crude finishing work.

To make a really fair comparison, check out example of private purchase overcoats/greatcoats worn by aristocratic British officers in WWII and the government issued ones worn by their middle class contemporaries. The former were often made by Savile Row or Hanover Street military outfitters like Gieves (now Gieves & Hawkes), Dege & Skinner, etc.

 

[Fastuni]

Yes, private purchase officers' garments. Ah, every time I have some vintage tailor made uniform, I wish it would be a civilian suit of THAT quality.

...

Here another German late-30's to 40's coat in dark grey herringbone. Very sturdy fabric.

 

[Guttersnipe]

1. If differences in cloth and construction do not speak to the quality of the garment, what does?

2. Comparing a heavy wool overcoat issued by the military with a heavy wool overcoat sold in a retail store on Main Street is perfectly valid, at least in ares of the world where weather matters.

Yes, private purchase officers' garments. Ah, every time I have some vintage tailor made uniform, I wish it would be a civilian suit of THAT quality.

I know, right? Actually, a number of the Savile Row tailors still do a brisk trade in military and ceremonial uniforms for officers both British and otherwise. I (somewhat) recently watched a documentary about the Brigade of Guards that focused both on their ceremonial role and modern combat duties in Afghanistan. My impression was several N.C.O.s, whom seemed to have Savile Row ties, were tasked full-time to tailoring uniforms for enlisted personnel on ceremonial duties in London! But for their ranks being listed, I would've thought these guys were tailors from the row (they were dressed in "civies" and looked like typical cutters).

. . .and back to overcoats. The herringbone in that coat about is GREAT!

 

[The Good]

That's a nice coat, Fastuni. I have a grey herringbone coat that has a very similar color, but it was probably made during the 1980s.

Evan, your coat's great, too. I guess a lot of us on here like herringbone, then? It's a very good pattern for an overcoat, I think.

 

[Evan Everhart]

Thanks The Good! I really love herring-bone! It's such a great pattern when you increase the scale! What I really want to find though, is a golden-rod to maybe even saffron or mustard toned diamond weave twill for a raglan sleeved high buttoning great-coat in the same basic cut but belted or half-belted. I'd even just be happy to locate the material for a more reasonable price (an acquaintance of mine mills the stuff on call but ridiculous price), and then I could just sew the thing myself. It's a ridiculously simple pattern and construction, especially considering the raglan sleeves. (I'm assuming you're referring to my baby, the large scale chest-nut and ivory raglan sleeved herring-bone from the late-mid 20 to early-mid 30s with its jumbo buttons out of that funny plastic material they used to use for everything back then...Bakelite!?

 

[Evan Everhart]

I've been thinking about it....I think that almost all of my over-coats are either in some sort of solid finished single colour fabric, or in herring-bone weave fabrics of one sort or another....I'm going to have to go and check on this to confirm (off to my wardrobe storage archives)! Oh, I've forgotten, there is one that I've almost over-looked, a beast of a different skin as it were, literally; an ox-blood db leather trench-coat with gold-silk quilted lining (once again, too bloody hot for wear in Southern California!) but on to verify the rest.....

 

[mustangman3000]

Just picked up my first overcoat on eBay! Seller said it's 50s but the union label suggests earlier.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/STUDIOUS-mens-50s-vintage-46L-HUGHES-HATCHER-dark-blue-overcoat-/400413556770?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&nma=true&si=1c3FAd4s8wPmmHvidirXSedkNtM%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

 

[Evan Everhart]

Pictures please?! Followed the link, no dice. How about it Mustangman3000? What is the cut like on your first over-coat? How exciting! Congratulations! Alright, so; colour, db or sb, number of buttons, lapel style, pocket style, number of exterior pockets, does the back vent have weather buttons, and finally length (above the knee, knee length, shin-length, ankle length? Let's hear it sir! Or just take a few pictures and post em. A pictures can be worth a thousand words....

 

[Dinerman]

Pictures please?! Followed the link, no dice. How about it Mustangman3000? What is the cut like on your first over-coat? How exciting! Congratulations! Alright, so; colour, db or sb, number of buttons, lapel style, pocket style, number of exterior pockets, does the back vent have weather buttons, and finally length (above the knee, knee length, shin-length, ankle length? Let's hear it sir! Or just take a few pictures and post em. A pictures can be worth a thousand words....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/400413556770

 

[Evan Everhart]

All I can make out from the little thumb-nail is that it's dark, navy, wide notched lapels, at least 3 buttons, longish, with strapped detailing at the cuff! Our man Mustangman300's still got to put up some larger and more detailed pictures of his new acquisition! Thanks for the link Dinerman! (still not sure why his didn't seem to work when I clicked it, took me to an entirely different page....

 

[Dinerman]

Little thumbnail? If you click that link and go to the photo section, you get these.

The '39 union tag puts it somewhere '39-'49.

 

[mustangman3000]

Thanks for posting the pictures for me Dinerman!