Coats & Jackets

A coat (a term frequently interchangeable with jacket) is an outer garment worn by both men and women, for warmth or fashion. more...

Coats typically have long sleeves and open down the front, closing by means of buttons, zippers, hook-and-loop fasteners, toggles, a belt, or a combination of these.

The term jacket is reserved for a hip-length or shorter garment, while coat can be used for a garment of any length.

History of the coat

Coat is one of the basic clothing category words in English, attested as far back as the early middle ages. (See also Clothing terminology.)

An early use of coat in English is coat of mail, a tunic-like garment of metal rings, usually knee- or mid-calf length.

The medieval and renaissance coat (generally spelled cote by costume historians) is a midlength, sleeved men's outer garment, fitted to the waist and buttoned up the front, with a full skirt - in its essentials, not unlike the modern coat.

By the eighteenth century, coats had begun to supplant capes and cloaks as outer wear, and by the twentieth century the term jacket became interchangeable with coat for short garments.

Types of coats

Coats of the 18th and 19th centuries

Some of these styles are still worn.

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