Coat

Webster's dictionary defines coat as 'An outer garment worn on the upper body and varying in length and style according to fashion'. However, there is more to it, a coat is an outer garment adorned by both men, and women, for warmth, and fashion. The history of coats traces back to as far as the human history itself. There has always been some sort of long outer garment used to protect people, or their evening wear. Coats have long sleeves and are open down the front, closing by means of buttons, zippers, hook-and-loop fasteners, a belt, or a combination of these. The cut, the title, and the pattern of the coat saw several evolutions through the course of the century.

There were different types of coats available through 18th and 19th centuries. Basque, Duster, Frock coat, Garibaldi jacket, Greatcoat, morning coat, Norfolk jacket, Smoking jacket, Spencer, and Tailcoat. Some of these styles are still worn today. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, a coat was a relatively straight loose garment, with the slight fullness in the knee-length skirts falling into folds over the backside of the hips. In the 1720s and 1730s, the skirts of the fashionable coat grew in volume and were set into regular pleats. In the 1730s an alternative to the weighty full skirted coat was developed. However, only the most conservative older man would be seen in a full-skirted coat. In the closing decade of the 18th century and into the next, the frock dominated fashionable dress and language. The great coat generally had a collar, a cape over the shoulders, deep cuffs, and was worn to knee length or longer.

The more modern versions of the coat includes Anorak, Blazer, Bolero, Chesterfield, Tuxedo, Duffle Coat, Field Jacket, Dinner Jacket, Eisenhower jacket, Lab coat, Mess jacket, Motorcycle jacket, Overcoat, Raincoat and Trench coat.