Eleanor Pemberton
The Coat That Does the Most Work
In a British winter, the overcoat is the hardest-working garment a man owns. It is the first thing anyone sees when you walk into a room and the last thing you take off. It has to stand up to drizzle, wind off the estuary, a crowded train and a long walk to a restaurant, and still look as though you gave it no thought at all. That is the quiet power of the thing: a well-fitted overcoat flatters a suit, rescues a jumper and a pair of jeans, and gives a man a silhouette that reads as deliberate rather than dressed up.
The trick is that very little of this comes down to price. It comes down to three measurements and a handful of details. Get the shoulders, the room through the body and the length right, and almost everything else follows.
Start at the Shoulder, Always
Nothing on an overcoat matters more than the shoulder, because the shoulder is the one thing a tailor cannot reasonably fix. The seam should sit at the bony edge of your shoulder, with no more than a centimetre or so of overhang. Any further and the coat begins to look borrowed from an older brother; any tighter and you will feel the seam bite every time you reach for a train door.
- Check the seam in a mirror from the side as well as the front — it should look like a continuation of your own shoulder line, not a shelf.
- Look for a reasonably high armhole. It restricts nothing and lets the sleeve move with your arm instead of lifting the whole coat.
- Make sure the collar sits close at the nape of the neck and stands tall enough to frame the face when turned up.
If the shoulders are wrong, walk away. If they are right, nearly everything else can be adjusted for a modest sum.
Leave Room for the Jacket Beneath
An overcoat must be tried on over the clothes you actually intend to wear under it. That sounds obvious; it is astonishing how often it is ignored. Turn up to the fitting in your heaviest jacket, or at least a thick jumper, and button the coat over the top.
When closed, the coat should skim the body rather than grip it. You should be able to slide a flat hand between the coat and your jacket at the chest without straining the buttons or dragging the lapels out of line. Look for horizontal creases across the back — that is the fabric telling you it is too tight, and it will only get worse once you are wearing a scarf.
- Lapels should lie flat and meet neatly, not gape open at the chest.
- Raise both arms and sit down. The coat should not ride up around your ears or pull across the back.
- Sleeves should finish at the wrist bone, showing half an inch of shirt or jacket cuff — no more.
Raglan sleeves, where the seam runs from collar to underarm, are more forgiving across the shoulders and worth considering if you are broad or between sizes.
The Knee Is the Point
Length is where most men go wrong, usually by buying a size down and ending up with something that looks like an overgrown jacket. A classic overcoat falls at or just above the knee — typically somewhere between five and ten centimetres above it. This is not an arbitrary rule. Knee length keeps the thighs warm, balances the proportions of the torso against the legs, and gives the coat enough cloth to move well when you walk.
A very short coat, ending at the hip, is a car coat. It has its uses, but it does not do the same job and it will not look smart over tailoring. Something falling well below the knee is a more formal, more dramatic garment and considerably harder to wear well in a city. The knee-length coat is the sensible middle, and it suits almost every build.
Cloth, Colour and Practicalities
Look for pure wool, generally between 500 and 700 grams per square metre. Melton is dense and weather-resistant; tweed and herringbone add texture; covert cloth is smooth and hard-wearing. Wool breathes, sheds light rain and ages gracefully, which is more than can be said for a coat heavy with synthetics.
- Navy for the city and everything else besides — it is the most useful coat colour a man can own.
- Charcoal for formality and for wearing over grey flannel.
- Camel or oatmeal for weekends, though it shows every mark.
- Olive or dark brown for a gentler, country-inflected look.
A single-breasted, three-button coat with a proper lining and a rear vent is the most versatile shape. If you want one coat for everything, that is the one.
Looking After It Properly
A good overcoat improves with age, provided you treat it with a little discipline. Brush it down with a stiff bristle brush after each wearing, paying attention to the collar and cuffs. Hang it on a broad wooden hanger and give it a day to rest between outings, which lets the wool recover its shape. Steam out creases rather than pressing them flat, and keep dry cleaning to once a season at most — the solvents strip the natural oils from the fibre.
Check the buttons twice a year and reattach any that are loose. Have the hems and cuffs repaired before they fray. Do that, and a well-fitted coat will look better in its fifth winter than it did in its first — which is really the whole point of dressing well, quietly and for the long term.
