Another difference is that (for some guys) American Ivy coats gieves mobility and freedom for hard work,
Neapolitan for leisure,walking,nicely wasting time.

Sack Coat
What the Victorians knew as the sack coat first appeared in France at the end of the 1840's and quickly spread to England and America, becoming very popular in the East by the mid-1850's. Intended for extremely informal occasions, sack coats soon became working and business wear for skilled workers and clerks. By the end of the 1850's the U.S. Army had adopted a military version of the sack coat as fatigue wear. By the 1870's civilian sacks were being worn as general purpose outdoors and working jackets by many people out west. Many, many photographs of round ups and trail drives show cowboys from Texas to Montana wearing sack coats as everyday working dress.
Despite what you may have read, they are not called "sack coats" because they are oversized, loose, or otherwise fit like a sack. Sack, sac, sacque, etc. all refer to the way the back of the jacket is cut; i.e. "sack cut". This simply means the back is formed of two pieces only, cut relatively straight down, instead of being made up of four curved pieces with hidden pockets in the tails as on more formal and traditional coats such as tail coats, morning coats, and frocks. Some tailoring manuals of the 1850's and 1860's refer to the sack coat by other names, but it's the same garment. Length of skirt and sleeve, number and style of pockets, collar, lapels, and the cut of the front skirt were the elements of changing style in the sack coat from 1850 to 1900. At all times in the period, sack coats were made in "close cut", "full cut", "single breasted", and "double breasted" versions. See the Walton & Taylor 1870 single-breasted sack coat.

From: http://www.waltontaylor.com/Glossary.html

Interesting. There is a definite, if slight, shirring at the shoulder of all my older Brooks coats that isn't on either old Press or Southwick or indeed H. Freeman's I own. It's even on old Brooks topcoats. This is something often attributed as being unique to the Neapolitan style, but the evidence suggests it has not always exclusively been so.

To me it is one of the more subtle hallmarks of old BB tailoring along with what I can only describe as a defined flare to the sleeve from the elbow down.

In my opinion, my undarted side vented jackets look awful, and if you take any feature as being most important on an 'ivy' jacket i have to say the back vent, is only second to the natural shoulder. It dictates so much about how the jacket sits. And gives a lovely line off the top of the back when looked at from the side or rear. Think big man SP sat on that bicycle think the image was posted on JS' facebook page for the hollywood look. Such a cool shape.

Last edited by Oo Bop Sh'bam (2011-12-05 22:02:16)

Last edited by carpu65 (2011-12-19 14:57:25)

a bump for Zach`s blog Piece on the similarity of the Brooks 50s shoulder and the Neapolitan spalla camicia.