As winter starts to bite down south, and the rain and wind and snow starts to increase dramatically, it’s time to start breaking out your winter wardrobe and trying to decide what to wear…or if you don’t have anything to wear…then trying to decide what to buy, so that you can wear it!

In this posting, we’ll be looking at the history behind various coats, overcoats and jackets which have been worn by men throughout history, and which have entered popular fashion as wardrobe must-haves, even in the 21st century. We’ll be looking at where they came from, what features they have, and what to look for if you want to buy one, and what sets them apart from each other.

I won’t be covering this in any particular order, so you might need to scroll around a bit, if you want to find the jacket or coat that you’re really interested to know more about. That said…let’s start!

The Peacoat

The peacoat is one of the most common types of short overcoats that exist on the market today. They’re thick, fluffy, warm, stylish, and they’ve been around for centuries! So…what is a peacoat?

Peacoats were created in the Netherlands in the late 1600s or early 1700s. The original Dutch name was the “Pijjekker” – where ‘Pij’ (pronounced ‘pea’) referred to the thick, water-repellent wool cloth from which the ‘jekker’ (‘jacket’ or ‘coat’), was made. This original Dutch spelling and pronunciation eventually entered the English language as Pea-jacket or, as is more common today – peacoat.

Peacoats were created by the Dutch specifically for seafarers. The coat’s thick, soft woolen fabric kept rain and sea-spray off the body, kept the under-clothes dry, and kept the sailor warm. Because of these properties, the peacoat was adopted by the English for use in the Royal Navy in the 1800s, and later on by the American Navy in the late 1800s-to-early-1900s.

As a result…there’s MILLIONS of military-surplus peacoats out there!

So, what does a peacoat look like?

Traditionally, a peacoat is…of course!…navy blue. You can also find them in black (and some navies did make them in black, because the blue tended to fade over time), or even in grey, but navy blue is the most traditional colour.

A peacoat is a short to medium-length overcoat. The skirt or hem stops at upper-or-mid thigh level, and typically goes no lower. It features double-breasted button closure, usually, with eight buttons.

Today, it’s really common to find peacoats with six button closures…but traditional models always had at least eight, sometimes even ten, buttons. In my opinion – a peacoat that doesn’t have at least eight buttons is not a peacoat – for reasons that I’ll get to in a minute.

Along with the buttons, the peacoat also had a lot of pockets. Most peacoats will have four pockets – two inner liner-pockets, and two outer ‘slash’ or ‘storm’ pockets – diagonal or vertical hand-warmer pockets in the sides of the coat. Some REALLY old versions of the peacoat, dating back to Edwardian, or even Victorian times, had even MORE pockets. These aren’t as common today, but if you hunt around, you can find versions of the peacoat which have SIX pockets – the two inner liner ones, the two slash pockets, and then underneath them – two extra flap-pockets. They’re a nice touch, but they’re not very common today.

Peacoats also have sleeve-cinchers, to tighten the sleeve-holes to stop wind and rain getting inside, and (sometimes), epaulettes on the shoulders. Traditionally, epaulettes were used for affixing rank insignia, so some ‘civilian’ versions may not have them, but if you can get one with epaulettes…hey, they’re cool, OK?

Another distinctive feature of the peacoat is what’s called the ‘Ulster’ collar, which comes from the Ulster district of northern Ireland…where it’s cold…and wet…and windy. The ulster collar is a collar that can be popped up and wrapped around your neck and chest, and buttoned into place!

…you can’t do this if you only have six buttons on your peacoat. They simply don’t reach up high enough.

See what I mean?

It’s because of the ulster collar that peacoats always had at least eight buttons, because you needed them to reach high up enough that you could button the collar across your chest and neck in really inclement, wet, cold or windy weather.

This photograph shows, possibly, the most traditional peacoat style of all – with ten button closure, and the six pockets. Two inside, and four outside. Like I said, they’re hardly ever made today, so if you want one, you’ll either have to hunt really hard, buy it vintage, or get someone to make it for you.

Another variation of the peacoat which is hardly ever seen today (except vintage), is the so-called “bridge coat”. Peacoats were issued to the ordinary seamen. Bridge-coats were issued to the officers. The main difference is that a bridge-coat is knee-length.

Why? Because officers often spent hours standing on the bridge-deck of a ship – which in times past – could be an open deck with no shelter, fully exposed to the elements – so the coats were cut longer to cover more of their bodies. Seamen weren’t given the same cut of coat because they were were required to climb masts and rigging – impossible to do, if you can’t move your knees around because you’re wearing a thick, heavy long coat! So they were given the shorter peacoat instead.

Peacoats are great for when you need a medium-sized, but warm overcoat for bad weather. If they’re made of quality materials, then you don’t have to worry about getting them wet or anything – remember, they were designed to go to sea!

Buying a Peacoat

Finding an original, vintage-style peacoat can be a bit of a challenge today. Your best bet for real vintage styling is to buy an actual military-surplus vintage peacoat. Since they were built for harsh, seafaring environments, they’re very long-lasting. Most modern styled peacoats only have six buttons…which kind of defeats the whole purpose of the peacoat – the reason I like them is because you can button it right up to your chin if you want to – and if you want to be able to do that because it’s rainy or windy or snowing, then the more traditional eight or even ten-button variety, is best.

They should be made of wool fabric (traditionally a style of fabric called “Melton”). The best are 100% wool, but anything that’s majority-wool blend should be fine, too.

The Greatcoat

Another popular style of overcoat is the greatcoat. Originally created for the army, greatcoats are long, heavy, double-breasted, knee-length overcoats. They typically have four pockets (two inside, two outside), and six button closure down the front. Designed to be worn by officers in the field, greatcoats were cut longer so that they would keep their wearers warm during long days and nights out in the open, while on active military campaigns.

You can easily buy army-surplus greatcoats secondhand, and they cost next to nothing. My greatcoat is a dark green, Canadian army surplus from the 1980s and it’s fantastic in cold weather! The wool is thick and VERY heavy, but then, it was designed to deal with a Canadian winter – and it does that very well!

A classic, army greatcoat. As with the peacoat, you may find that yours has epaulettes on the shoulders, again for holding rank-insignia badges.

Buying a Greatcoat

Greatcoats are VERY easy to find. Any decent military-surplus or army-supplies or secondhand store, is likely to have loads of them! Just be prepared for how HEAVY they are! Since they were designed to be worn outdoors for long periods of time, greatcoats are made from very heavy wool fabric, and since they reach down to knee-length or even lower, they might be a bit cumbersome. But they work amazingly for keeping you warm!

The Trenchcoat

Aah, the trenchcoat! Arguably one of the most famous articles of menswear ever created! Rugged, stylish, sophisticated, mysterious, sexy, practical…everything that a man…or an overcoat!…should be!

The exact origins of the trenchcoat are not clear. Two companies claim to be the originator of the trenchcoat – Aquascutum, and Burberry (yes, that Burberry). While it is true that both companies did create, and manufacture rainproof overcoats, exactly who started doing it first, is unclear. Partially because rainproof overcoats actually predate both of these companies!

What is clear, however, is that the classic trenchcoat that we know and love, was being manufactured by at least the 1890s, and first saw military action in the Boer War. However, as a small, colonial war, the Trench didn’t receive much press. That would all change, ten years later, when the Great War began. Although it was designed before the Great War, it was its heavy use in the trenches of that conflict, that gave the new garment its name: The trenchcoat.

By the 1910s, how wars were fought, and the clothes they were fought in, had changed dramatically. Gone were the fancy bright scarlet ‘redcoat’ uniforms of the 1800s, and in came army-brown uniforms and khaki in the 1890s and 1900s. As the British Army prepared to invade France and bolster up their allies in the fight against Germany and Austria, a new type of garment was required for the new fighting conditions.

So, companies like Burberry (the most famous manufacturer) started cranking out a new type of coat.

The trenchcoat is iconic. You know what one is the moment you see it. But what makes a coat a trenchcoat?

To find out – let’s take the most famous trenchcoat of them all, as an example:

Worn by Humprhey Bogart in the 1941 classic “Casablanca”, this is the actual garment used in the film, as sold by Bonham’s auction house.

Trenchcoats were cut long – knee-length at least. They were double-breasted, with, like the peacoat – eight-button closure. They had epaulettes and cuff-adjustors, like the peacoat, and diagonal or vertical storm-pockets, like the peacoat. They had interior liner-pockets, like the peacoat…but that’s where the similarities end.

The trenchcoat was designed as a raincoat which could be worn by army officers on the Western front. The water-table in northeastern France and Belgium, near the German border was notoriously shallow. After digging just four or five feet, you’d hit ground-water…which was terrible news for soldiers who were expected to dig trenches at least six or seven feet deep! Combine this with heavy rain, and the conditions that many soldiers and officers had to fight in were absolutely appalling.

Because of this, the trenchcoat was designed to repel water. To do this, it was made of a waterproof cotton fabric known as Gaberdine (which trenchcoats are still made of today). For warmth, the coats were given interior liners of wool, which were buttoned into place. Since officers had to move quickly through the trenches and across the fields, the coats were made lightweight, to facilitate movement. To deal with the heavy rain, the coats were given cuff-cinches, ulster collars, buttoned back-vents, full-shoulder yokes to keep water off the wearer’s back…and a curious flap of fabric across the right chest, known as a storm-flap.

The exact purpose of the storm-flap has been lost to history, and there are two competing theories. The first is that the flap is a ‘gun-flap’ – it’s where you rest the butt of your rifle while firing, and the flap provided padding against the recoil of the rifle. The other – more likely explanation – is that the flap – which buttons across the collar and top of the coat – prevents rain from running down in between the buttons, and getting your clothes wet!…which is why it’s called a storm-flap.

The storm-flap is always on the right chest – and you can see in the trenchcoat worn by Bogart, just behind the right lapel.

Another of the trenchcoat’s most famous features is the belted back and front. Like with almost everything else on the coat – this was added for purely practical reasons – the belted closure was designed to give officers (and trenchcoats were originally sold only to officers) somewhere to hang things, stuff like whistles, grenades, spare ammunition, and so on. For this reason, brass D-rings were often sewn into the belts to provide dedicated anchoring points, and to stop things from sliding around. Not all trenchies have this feature anymore, but they’re an interesting throwback to the coat’s military history.

Last but not least, the trenchcoat always had a buttoned vent. The ‘vent’ is the split or open flap at the back of the coat or jacket. A hidden buttonhole and button were sewn into the back of the trenchcoat so that you could, if you desired – keep the vent buttoned. Like with almost everything else on this coat – it was designed to keep off rain and snow.

That said – the trenchcoat is not really a cold-winter coat. It’s primarily a raincoat. If your winters aren’t excessively biting, you could quite easily get away with wearing a trenchcoat as a winter overcoat, but for anything involving snow, you’ll probably want something heavier, since the cotton construction (designed to shed rain), won’t be thick enough to deal with sub-zero temperatures, in most cases.

The Popularity of the Trenchcoat

More than almost any other garment on this list, the trenchcoat is iconic. It conjures up images of warfare, bravery, fighting tooth-and-claw. It also makes you think of the Golden Age of Hollywood, between the 1920s to the 1950s, of private detectives and shady characters, of guys who go around with watches hidden inside their coats, and sinister gangsters hiding shotguns inside the linings!

The coat proved so popular that, even before WWI was even over, Burberry started selling civilian versions of the trenchcoat directly to the public. American soldiers arriving in France in 1918 fell in love with the coat, and brought it back with them stateside, which led to its adoption in Hollywood…and anything big in Hollywood spreads around the world!

Buying a Trenchcoat

The trenchcoat is so iconic that almost every major fashion-house has produced a version of it at one point or another. If you want to be REAL traditional, you can buy one from Burberry, or Aquascutum…but be warned that they are EXTREMELY expensive, and that retail-prices of $1,800 – $2,500+, are not uncommon!

This being the case, it’s probably better to buy one either vintage or secondhand, from a decent vintage clothing store, or to buy a trenchie from another manufacturer – making sure, of course, that they have all the necessary details that make it stand out as a trenchcoat…otherwise, what’s the point?

Trenchcoats come – broadly speaking – in four colours: Black, navy blue, grey, and tan. Tan, camel, or khaki, is the most traditional colour for a trenchcoat, since it was designed to go with the original colour of the British field-dress uniform of the First World War. If something like that is a bit too stand-outy for you, however, then navy blue, or grey variations are also available. There are also black trenchcoats, but black is rather overrated as a trenchcoat colour sometimes.

The Chesterfield Coat

Available in both single and double-breasted varieties, the Chesterfield is a formal, knee-length overcoat, with slash, or flapped pockets, and is characterised by the contrasting, dark velvet collar across the back and sides, and the breast-pocket below the left lapel.

Not all modern Chesterfield coats have the contrasting velvet collars, but if you’re going for the traditional look, then try and find one with such a collar. Despite its current status as a rather formal overcoat style, the Chesterfield was originally considered to be a more casual option! When it was created in the 1800s, it was largely worn as an alternative to a coat that has almost completely fallen out of fashion – The Frock Coat!

I won’t cover frock-coats here as a separate entry, but it was the main type of overcoat worn between the Regency era of the 1810s, up until the Edwardian era, of the 1910s, a span of roughly 100 years.

The frock coat was heavy, and long, reaching knee-length, or even below! It was seen as cumbersome, old-fashioned, and impractical. This was largely due to its flaring, full skirted hem. The excessive fabric used to make it just wasn’t fashionable anymore!

Overall, the Chesterfield was just more practical. It had more pockets, and it had a straighter, less flamboyant cut, which didn’t use so much fabric. It basically did everything that the frock coat did, but with less fabric, and more options!

Buying a Chesterfield

Chesterfield coats are basically the quintessential look, when most people think of an ‘overcoat’ – as such, any decent outfitter or retail store is likely to stock them. Keep in mind that chesterfields are designed to be long-draping, however. A hem that doesn’t reach at least the knee, can’t really be called a chesterfield. On some older chesterfields (like, if you buy vintage), can drop right down to the ankle, although this is rare on most modern coats.

Flight Jackets

A relative newcomer to the menswear scene is the fighter jacket and bomber jacket, which first appeared in the 1910s. These are typically gathered under the overall title of ‘flight jackets’.

The First World War was the first major conflict to see heavy use of aircraft. Early fighter, bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, used by the German Imperial Airforce, and the Royal Flying Corps (RFC, later the RAF), often featured open cockpits. Flying at heights of several thousand meters, windchill, exposure and cold temperatures were a big problem for early aviators.

To stop pilots from dying of exposure, or from getting frostbite, tailors started creating new types of jackets and coats for them, which were specially designed to take into account the peculiarities of this new occupation.

Bomber jackets were typically made of leather. Windproof and extremely durable, leather was unlikely to rip, it would repel water, and since leather doesn’t have any weave – it was the most effective way to block wind.

The only problem is that raw leather is rather uncomfortable against the skin. To combat this, bomber jackets were given soft sheepskin, fur, or wool linings inside. This prevented the pilots and bombers of WWI and WWII from freezing to death while on long-range missions.

Since pilots spent most of their time seated, with their jackets zippered or buttoned shut, bomber jackets were designed with pockets on the outside – usually two breast-pockets, with buttoned flaps to stop things falling out – and two lower flapped pockets, or even just simple slash pockets.

When the first flight-jackets were created, open cockpits were the norm. Because of this, flight-jackets were designed with cinched-in waists, cuffs, and even collars! Elasticated, gathered-in hems and cuffs were common. Wind-flaps or storm-flaps (such as on the relatively-recently-invented trenchcoat!) were also used.

By buttoning over the gaps in a jacket or coat that existed near the collar or around the chest, the storm-flap prevented wind and rain from getting inside a pilot’s uniform. To further improve things, in WWII, flight-jackets were made with zipper, to ensure an even more windproof closure.

Another common accessory used to reduce the wind and cold was the humble white, silk scarf. It’s an iconic part of the uniform of a WWI-era aviator! The scarves were used to keep the neck and chest warm, and to stop wind from blowing down inside your clothes.

The soft, silk fabric also prevented the fur or sheepskin lining of your jacket from scratching, rubbing and chafing your neck – which could happen a lot to WWI pilots, because without RADAR on their aircraft, they were constantly turning their heads left, right, up and down, to scan the skies for enemy aircraft.

When you probably had gloves on to keep your fingers from freezing off, the last thing you wanted to do was to have to remove them every few minutes to scratch an annoying itch on your neck!…the scarf prevented this from happening.

Flight-jackets became immensely popular after WWII, and greasers and bikers in the 1950s and 60s adopted the flight-jackets that their fathers wore during the War as part of their ‘look’, for purely practical purposes – the close-fitting cuts, convenient pockets, leather construction and windproof designs made them the ideal garments for motorcycle-attire!

Buying a Flight-Jacket

Due to their rugged, modern appearance, flight-jackets are still widely available, either at vintage stores, or at modern retailers who produce their own variations on them. That said, flight-jackets have kind of morphed into motorcycle-clothing, so the two may be used interchangeably. Flight-jackets are typically wool or sheepskin-lined, for warmth, and with elasticated or belted waists and cuffs, to hold back the wind.