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William Curtis Noyes (1805-1864) wearing a single-breasted overfrock with velvet collar and pointed lapels.
An over-frock coat is a formalovercoat designed to be worn over a frock coat if needed in cold weather. A top-frock coat may also be worn over a frock coat in milder weather. Shaped like the body coats popular in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, the over-frock coat was cut in essentially the same way as the frock coat that was worn under it, although it would be larger overall to accommodate the frock-coat worn underneath. Like the frock coat, the over-frock would typically be single-breasted, with step lapels for informal occasions like business, and double-breasted with pointed lapels for formal occasions - weddings, funerals, balls, etc. The formal variety was sometimes called a Prince Albert overcoat. A frock-overcoat, like a frock coat, almost never has pockets.
Formal wear, formal attire or full dress is the traditional Western dress code category applicable for the most formal occasions, such as weddings, christenings, confirmations, funerals, Easter and Christmas traditions, in addition to certain audiences, balls, and horse racing events. Formal attire is traditionally divided into formal day and evening attire; implying morning dress before 6 p.m., and white tie afterwards. Generally permitted other alternatives, though, are the most formal versions of ceremonial dresses, full dress uniforms, religious clothing, national costumes, and most rarely frock coats. In addition, formal attire may be instructed to be worn with official orders and medals.
An overcoat is a type of long coat intended to be worn as the outermost garment, which usually extends below the knee. Overcoats are most commonly used in winter when warmth is more important.
A frock coat is a man's coat characterised by a knee-length skirt all around the base, popular during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. The double-breasted styled frock coat is sometimes called a Prince Albert after Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria. The frock coat is a fitted, long-sleeved coat with a centre vent at the back, and some features unusual in post-Victorian dress. These include the reverse collar and lapels, where the outer edge of the lapel is cut from a separate piece of cloth from the main body, and also a high degree of waist suppression, where the coat's diameter round the waist is much less than round the chest. This is achieved by a high horizontal waist seam with side bodies, which are extra panels of fabric above the waist used to pull in the naturally cylindrical drape.
Description
Both the top-frock and over-frock coats were woollen, like most male garments of the time, and were made in varying weights, ranging from just 14oz for mild-weather topcoats, to 20 or 30oz for really cold weather. Wool was not a prerequisite, but was the most common material, and came in a range of qualities, the finest being that of a Merino sheep. Any material might be used, at a greater cost, including cashmere (from the Kashmir goat), angora (from the Angora rabbit), alpaca, or huarizo (from a hybrid of alpaca and llama). Evening over-frock coats, worn over Evening dress could be made from Mohair (from the Angora goat), which produced an additional sheen. Evening over-frocks often have silk revers, like the dress coat worn underneath. Both could be lined on the inside with fur of animals ranging from nutria or rabbit to silver fox or Imperial sable, depending on the owner's means and preferences. To order coat lined in sable, beaver, seal, or mink from one's tailor would be prohibitively expensive for most, and to own one would mark one as a person of immense wealth and status. The collars were very often velvet for warmth.[according to whom?]Silk velvet was most expensive, while velvets made from cotton or other materials were more affordable.
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other animals, including cashmere and mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, from hide and fur clothing from bison, angora from rabbits, and other types of wool from camelids; additionally, the Highland and the Mangalica breeds of cattle and swine, respectively, possess wooly coats. Wool consists of protein together with a few percent lipids. In this regard it is chemically quite distinct from the more dominant textile, cotton, which is mainly cellulose.
Cashmere wool, usually simply known as cashmere, is a fiber obtained from cashmere goats or pashmina goats and other types of goat. The word cashmere is an old spelling of Kashmir.
Angora hair or Angora fibre refers to the downy coat produced by the Angora rabbit. While the names of the source animals are similar, Angora fibre is distinct from mohair, which comes from the Angora goat. Angora fibre is also distinct from cashmere, which comes from the cashmere goat. Angora is known for its softness, thin fibres, and what knitters refer to as a halo (fluffiness). It is also known for its silky texture. It is much warmer and lighter than wool due to the hollow core of the angora fibre. It also gives them their characteristic floating feel.
The over-frock was the standard overcoat for much of the Victorian era and until after the First World War. Its popularity mirrored the frock coat, which replaced the tailcoat (justacorps) as day wear[disambiguation needed] in the 1850s. The frock coat, often attributed to the result of the fashion influence of the Regency dandy George Bryan 'Beau' Brummell, was almost universally black, and was worn with waistcoat and trousers, which could be of any colour. Black coat, waistcoat, and trousers - "frock suits" - were worn only for funerals (as a 'mourning suit') and the most formal of occasions. The trousers that went with it - what would be known as formal trousers - could either be checked or striped, or have no pattern at all. The frock coat, and with it the over-frock, was increasingly rarely worn as casual wear towards the end of the 19th century, as the "sack suit", the comparatively loose modern suit was adopted for leisure wear, and the morning coat, originally for equestrian use, replaced it for some formal events. By 1926, when King George V wore a morning coat to the opening of the Chelsea flower show, the frock coat was barely ever worn, and with it the over-frock. In 1936 King Edward VIII removed it from official British royal courtdress codes.
A tailcoat is a knee-length coat with the front of the skirt cut away, so as to leave only the rear section of the skirt, known as the tails.
A justacorps or justaucorps is a long, knee-length coat worn by men in the latter half of the 17th century, and throughout the 18th century. The garment is of French origin, and was introduced in England as a component of a three-piece ensemble, also consisting of breeches and a long vest or waistcoat. This ensemble served as the prototype of the frock coat, which in turn evolved into the modern-day three-piece suit. The fabric selection and styling of the justacorps varied throughout time periods, as fashions frequently altered.
George Bryan "Beau" Brummell was an iconic figure in Regency England and for many years the arbiter of men's fashion. At one time he was a close friend of the Prince Regent, the future King George IV, but after the two quarrelled, and Brummell got into debt, he had to take refuge in France. Eventually he died shabby and insane in Caen.
The over-frock, like other body coats, could not survive the increasing cost of the bespoke tailoring required to make them fit properly around the waist to create the classical "hour-glass" silhouette. In the first decades of the 20th century, it was replaced by sack overcoats like the Chesterfield coat, the guard's coat, and the Ulster coat and the Inverness coats and such, mirroring the change from frock coats to modern suit jackets. The expensive over-frock became impractical in comparison.
The word bespoke has evolved from a verb meaning "to speak for something" to its contemporary usage as an adjective that has changed from describing first tailor-made suits and shoes, and later, to anything commissioned to a particular specification, and finally to a general marketing and branding concept implying exclusivity and appealing to snobbery.
The Chesterfield is a formal dark knee-length overcoat with a velvet collar introduced around the 1840s in the United Kingdom, with prominence attributed to its namesake George Stanhope, 6th Earl of Chesterfield, then a leader of British fashion.
The Ulster is a Victorian working daytime overcoat, with a cape and sleeves. It is often seen in period productions of Victorian novels, such as those of Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Ulster coat was referred to in Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, "A Scandal in Bohemia", "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" and "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor".
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Related Research Articles
Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element for men, the dinner suit or dinner jacket. In American English, the equivalent term, tuxedo, is common. The dinner suit is a black, midnight blue or white two- or three-piece suit, distinguished by satin or grosgrain jacket lapels and similar stripes along the outseam of the trousers. It is worn with a white dress shirt with standing or turndown collar and link cuffs, a black bow tie, typically an evening waist coat or a cummerbund, and black patent leather dress shoes or court pumps. Accessories may include a semi-formal homburg, bowler, or boater hat. For women, an evening gown or other fashionable evening attire may be worn.
A waistcoat, or vest, is a sleeveless upper-body garment. It is usually worn over a dress shirt and necktie and below a coat as a part of most men's formal wear. It is also sported as the third piece in the traditional three-piece male lounge suit. Any given vest can be simple or ornate or for leisure or luxury. Historically, the vest can be worn either in the place of or underneath a larger coat dependent upon the weather, wearer, and setting.
White tie, also called full evening dress or a dress suit, is the most formal in traditional evening Western dress codes. For men, it consists of a black dress tailcoat worn over a white starched shirt, marcella waistcoat and the eponymous white bow tie worn around a standing wingtip collar. High-waisted black trousers and patent leather oxford or optionally court shoes complete the outfit. Orders insignia and medals can be worn. Acceptable accessories include a top hat, white gloves, a white scarf, a pocket watch and a boutonnière. Women wear full length ball or evening gowns and, optionally, jewellery, tiaras, a small handbag and evening gloves.
In clothing, a suit is a set of garments made from the same cloth, usually consisting of at least a jacket and trousers. Lounge suits, which originated in Britain as country wear, are the most common style of Western suit. Other types of suit still worn today are the dinner suit, part of black tie, which arose as a lounging alternative to dress coats in much the same way as the day lounge suit came to replace frock coats and morning coats; and, rarely worn today, the morning suit. This article discusses the lounge suit, elements of informal dress code.
Mess dress uniform is the military term for the evening dress worn by commissioned officers and non-commissioned officers in their respective messes or on other more formal occasions. It is also known as mess uniform and, more informally, as mess kit. It frequently consists of a mess jacket and trousers worn with a white formal dress shirt and other formal accessories, though the exact form varies depending on the uniform regulations for each service.
1860s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by extremely full-skirted women's fashions relying on crinolines and hoops and the emergence of "alternative fashions" under the influence of the Artistic Dress movement.
Fashion in the 1890s in European and European-influenced countries is characterized by long elegant lines, tall collars, and the rise of sportswear. It was an era of great dress reforms led by the invention of the drop-frame safety bicycle, which allowed women the opportunity to ride bicycles more comfortably, and therefore, created the need for appropriate clothing.
1870s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by a gradual return to a narrow silhouette after the full-skirted fashions of the 1850s and 1860s.
Morning dress, also known as formal day dress, is the formal Western dress code for day attire, consisting chiefly of, for men, a morning coat, waistcoat, and formal trousers, and an appropriate gown for women. Men may also wear a popular variant where all parts are the same colour and material, often grey and usually called "morning suit" or "morning grey" to distinguish it; considered properly appropriate only to festive functions such as summer weddings and horse races, which consequently makes it slightly less formal. The correct hat would be a formal top hat, or if on less spacious audience settings optionally a collapsible equivalent opera hat. The semi-formal counterpart of this code is the stroller.
1840s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by a narrow, natural shoulder line following the exaggerated puffed sleeves of the later 1820s and 1830s. The narrower shoulder was accompanied by a lower waistline for both men and women.
1850s fashion in Western and Western-influenced clothing is characterized by an increase in the width of women's skirts supported by crinolines or hoops, and the beginnings of dress reform. Masculine styles began to originate more in London, while female fashions originated almost exclusively in Paris.
During the 1820s in European and European-influenced countries, fashionable women's clothing styles transitioned away from the classically influenced "Empire"/"Regency" styles of c. 1795–1820 and re-adopted elements that had been characteristic of most of the 18th century, such as full skirts and clearly visible corseting of the natural waist.
Court uniform and dress were required to be worn by those in attendance at the royal Court in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Fashion in the 1880s in Western and Western-influenced countries is characterized by the return of the bustle. The long, lean line of the late 1870s was replaced by a full, curvy silhouette with gradually widening shoulders. Fashionable waists were low and tiny below a full, low bust supported by a corset. The Rational Dress Society was founded in 1881 in reaction to the extremes of fashionable corsetry.
Fashion in the period 1900–1909 in the Western world continued the long elegant lines of the 1890s. Tall, stiff collars characterize the period, as do women's broad hats and full "Gibson Girl" hairstyles. A new, columnar silhouette introduced by the couturiers of Paris late in the decade signaled the approaching abandonment of the corset as an indispensable garment.
Fashion from 1910–1919 in the Western world was characterized by a rich and exotic opulence in the first half of the decade in contrast with the somber practicality of garments worn during the Great War. Men's trousers were worn cuffed to ankle-length and creased. Skirts rose from floor length to well above the ankle, women began to bob their hair, and the stage was set for the radical new fashions associated with the Jazz Age of the 1920s.
The man's suit of clothes, in the sense of a lounge or business or office suit, is a set of garments which are crafted from the same cloth. This article discusses the history of the lounge suit, often called a business suit when made in dark colors and of conservative cut.
