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#1 2014-09-19 09:15:23

SanchoPanza
Member
Posts: 1096

Car coats?

Could somebody recommend any nice car coats? I need a coat that can take me through autumn. The first picture in the Free Speech Movement is the ideal one. How "warm" are they? I would like to have some kind of sweater under it!

 

#2 2014-09-19 09:17:59

Armchaired
Ivy I.V.
From: Old England
Posts: 7580

Re: Car coats?

The unseen scene is a bit of an expert on these.
If he is looking i would expect him to jump in with some sound advise.
I would like to state that if you are using your car coat for driving
please consider driving mocs  or even slippers as driving will crease your nice shoes.


�Careful with that axe Eugene.�

 

#3 2014-09-19 09:27:31

SenorBlues
Member
Posts: 620

Re: Car coats?

And a pair of these:

http://www.roullierwhite.com/gloves---dents-vintage-leather-and-crocheted-cotton-driving-gloves-2651-p.asp

And a pipe should do it.


“I have never listened to anyone who criticised my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.”
Ray Bradbury

 

#4 2014-09-19 09:31:50

Oliver
Member
From: San Francisco
Posts: 6321

Re: Car coats?

Go vintage young man!

 

#5 2014-09-19 09:35:58

Oliver
Member
From: San Francisco
Posts: 6321

Re: Car coats?

 

#6 2014-09-19 09:41:53

SanchoPanza
Member
Posts: 1096

Re: Car coats?

I guess that's the only way! I found that I know is too short, but I liked the material. I will post a picture later. How are the sizes, do I use the jacket sizes? Like 40, 41, etc?

 

#7 2014-09-19 09:46:56

An Unseen Scene
Member
From: Nottingham, UK
Posts: 1173

Re: Car coats?

Yes indeed.  Car coats are great for winter.  I like them short, just below a suit length rather than knee length but there's both sorts.

I picked a beautiful one by Jaeger recently from their outlet site.  They and Austin Reed do mid level priced ones in UK (manufactured by outside companies and sold through I think), Aquascutum have a good line and worth searching on vintage but their new range are at high prices, similarly Dunhill.   Vintage Aquascutum can be very good but still attract prices that make a dabble at the bay a risk.

At the low end Lands End do one some years that I'm sure will be okay.

I have a great heavy Barbpur one, look out for those.  Wolsey ones pop up regularly online and are excellent, not too thick.   It's fairly easy to pick up USA ones on the USA bay or ETSY but it's a risk on the import cost and the quality upon arrival, I've given up on that.

I've wanted a Gloverall Litchfield classic car coat for a while but its hard to justify when I have at least four sat waiting for winter already.   They are gone from Gloverall's website not probably still at Stuarts online though.   However I recommended a few people to Gloverall items in the last two years and the quality wasn't there.   Another comparator at good prices is DuffleCoastsUK who regularly do car coarts and is a front for Montgomery.   Quality seems okay on the one I got that was too big so I returned it.

Car Coats are usually very generous in size, designed to go over a suit.  The Barbour ones are huge as they are designed to go over a tweed suit  (but by gum, they are incredible quality for the price, will last a life).

I genuinely recommend vintage as an initial way to go with a black Wolsey for about twenty quid for a coat that should be 15x that price new.   Of course the motherlode is Brooks Brothers and amazingly I got a thick blue one that was perfect apart from needing to be brushed for a fiver, yes a fiver, on ebay last year.   Go check the prices on their new ones.....

However the one I envisage wearing most this year is the new Jaeger, good cashmere/wool mix fabric, nice straight, short cut, not too big, lovely navy colour and only 70 quid new reduced end of range from their outlet website (good knitted ties and the like there).  They've probably gone now there.

The real issue with car coats is storing them, they take far more room on a rail than a mac of course.

Hope that helps.

Last edited by An Unseen Scene (2014-09-19 09:49:55)

 

#8 2014-09-19 09:48:56

Tommy
Member
Posts: 1753

Re: Car coats?

 

#9 2014-09-19 09:55:38

An Unseen Scene
Member
From: Nottingham, UK
Posts: 1173

Re: Car coats?

Duffle coats without the hoods wouldn't be a car coat in my view.  The car coat doesn't have the toggles and is usually less weighty.   They are designed for the straight button, single breasted front, often with the buttons hidden, sometimes with an additional zip.   A car coat is closer to a mac but in different fabric as I see it.    I suppose a double breasted car coat takes us into Pea Coats.   I may be wrong but nobody I've engaged with has ever asserted a hard and fast rule on what a car coat actually is, it's just from convention that my views have formed and by reference to the Gloverall Litchfield which seems a source for many of them.

 

#10 2014-09-19 10:01:08

doghouse
Member
Posts: 5147

Re: Car coats?


Hide thy infants, hide thy Lady, and hide thy husband, alas they art forcing sexual intercourse upon the entire populace. - Wm Shakespeare

 

#11 2014-09-19 10:02:19

An Unseen Scene
Member
From: Nottingham, UK
Posts: 1173

Re: Car coats?

For me, experiment on sizing with vintage at cheap prices.  I find on the whole go at least one whole size down but it varies by brand.   Modern ones will be more accurate to today's sizing, vintage ones tend to be big.   But like Benny Hill said 'I like 'em big'.

 

#12 2014-09-19 10:09:21

Oliver
Member
From: San Francisco
Posts: 6321

Re: Car coats?

If I could afford it (maybe next year) O'Connell's ragalan overcoat in either charcoal brown donegal Harris Tweed or brown and black herringbone would be my dream! I don't have the 1.5k to drop now, but for a good winter coat, it's admittedly worth the price. I've seen many fine looking mid century options on eBay for under $60 though.

 

#13 2014-09-19 10:27:25

Sid Ford
Member
Posts: 636

Re: Car coats?

 

#14 2014-09-19 10:42:53

An Unseen Scene
Member
From: Nottingham, UK
Posts: 1173

Re: Car coats?

I envisage the wool goods might be as good as ever, it was generally others.

 

#15 2014-09-19 10:54:19

Tomiskinky
Member
Posts: 3229

Re: Car coats?

A car coat should as Unseen says be just below jacket length - the clue being in the title, it's sole purpose is to keep you warm whilst driving an open top car. I have my Lakeland Clicker as a vintage option, which I think is a great coat - As others have mentioned lots of modern options out there too.

 

#16 2014-09-19 11:13:47

SenorBlues
Member
Posts: 620

Re: Car coats?


“I have never listened to anyone who criticised my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.”
Ray Bradbury

 

#17 2014-09-19 11:18:13

Oliver
Member
From: San Francisco
Posts: 6321

Re: Car coats?

How does a knee or calf length overcoat hinder you from driving a car though?

 

#18 2014-09-19 11:18:46

doghouse
Member
Posts: 5147

Re: Car coats?

Anything knee or shorter shouldn't.


Hide thy infants, hide thy Lady, and hide thy husband, alas they art forcing sexual intercourse upon the entire populace. - Wm Shakespeare

 

#19 2014-09-19 11:20:41

Oliver
Member
From: San Francisco
Posts: 6321

Re: Car coats?

When you're sitting in a car, every coat is knee or shorter. If a coat hangs below your knees while sitting, it's too long.

 

#20 2014-09-19 11:23:16

doghouse
Member
Posts: 5147

Re: Car coats?

Last edited by doghouse (2014-09-19 11:24:28)


Hide thy infants, hide thy Lady, and hide thy husband, alas they art forcing sexual intercourse upon the entire populace. - Wm Shakespeare

 

#21 2014-09-19 11:36:05

stanshall
Member
From: Gilligan's Island
Posts: 12991

Re: Car coats?

Last edited by stanshall (2014-09-19 11:54:11)


"bow wow wow yippie yo yippie yay"

 

#22 2014-09-19 11:49:22

doghouse
Member
Posts: 5147

Re: Car coats?


Hide thy infants, hide thy Lady, and hide thy husband, alas they art forcing sexual intercourse upon the entire populace. - Wm Shakespeare

 

#23 2014-09-19 12:06:23

Worried Man
Member
From: Davebrubeckistan
Posts: 15988

Re: Car coats?

I just love how our threads turn on a dime.


"We close our sto' at a reasonable hour because we figure anybody who would want one of our suits has got time to stroll over here in the daytime." - VP of George Muse Clothing, Atlanta, 1955

 

#24 2014-09-19 12:08:44

doghouse
Member
Posts: 5147

Re: Car coats?


Hide thy infants, hide thy Lady, and hide thy husband, alas they art forcing sexual intercourse upon the entire populace. - Wm Shakespeare

 

#25 2014-09-19 12:11:18

Worried Man
Member
From: Davebrubeckistan
Posts: 15988

Re: Car coats?


"We close our sto' at a reasonable hour because we figure anybody who would want one of our suits has got time to stroll over here in the daytime." - VP of George Muse Clothing, Atlanta, 1955

 

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