the car coat….
( shorter and easier to wear)
In bespoke tailoring the main thing that gives so much pleasure for me is that I’m dealing with individuals. People who have different ideas and personalities which I have to remember and adapt my fitting and styling to so that we both achieve what we want. Yes, we’ve a house style but subtle differences are what it’s all about.
As I’ve always said you’re only as good as your last coat. This is not simply a matter of technical ability or quality of workmanship. It’s very much to do with understanding what your client truly wants from his commission. In simple terms you can cut what you think is perfect but find your client’s not as convinced. In exactly the same way I may not be happy with the result but my client is over the moon as we’ve hit the spot exactly. This is of course is because it’s for an individual who thankfully has different ideas from everyone else which lets me enjoy a different challenge every time I put my shears in the cloth. It’s the old saying, “one mans meat is another mans poison”
The picture above is a classic example of this. This belongs to a lovely client who’s been kind enough to order a very substantial wardrobe from us. He’s all the classics then some very unusual suits that break the mould. He owns a beautiful classic single breasted overcoat but he wanted something shorter, more fitted and easier to wear on all occasions.
When I started in the trade this type of garment was called a “car coat”. You don’t hear the term any more but it was for exactly as its name suggest. Originally it was from the great days when most cars where open topped. The were rather chilly and and a nice coat was always needed, certainly in the UK. A classic overcoat would be too bulky and awkward to wear so the driver needed something sporty and comfortable but still had you looking elegantly dressed upon arrival.
So out of necessity the car coat was born. Shorter with a little flair for sitting comfortably with easy to access pockets to get your keys etc. Usually made as our example here of a sportier less formal material such as this lovely tweed from W. Bill which we’ve cut with back darts and a half belt for a little extra style. I’m not sure if my client will be wearing this in an open top vintage Bentley but when he does arrive at his destination he’ll definitely look the best dressed.
For my US clients you’ll be pleased to hear I’ve booked my tickets for the US this Autumn. The details are here.
Orders for car coats are being accepted 
Tags: savile row tailors
This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2012 at 11:20 am and is filed under people, savile row, technical. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
3 Responses to “the car coat….”
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The car coat looks excellent and as far as I can see have splendid soft shoulder seam. However, there is something that puzzles me: every time I click an image on the blog the big image falls sidewards – meaning that an image intended to be standing, is lying when it is clicked. Perhaps it is only on my computer it does that, but you might be looking into that.
I see that too, the images are displayed horizontally when you click on them, so you have to look at a long coat sideways.
I have always wondered why the car coat fell out of fashion, they are far more practical than either a full length coat or a waist length shell jacket for ordinary wear.
Isn’t yours a bit longer than usual? I always thought a car coat was meant to have a back hem that just touched the surface upon which the wearer sat.