alden wrote:Costi,
I agree with you that it looks a bit 2 much. Let’s clean it up…
Thanks to one of our clever members we can see what the overcoat could have been.
Hehe!
If only it were that easy... Now the buttons are all clustered too high up, the coat is too long in relation to the buttons' position, even the overlap seems a bit too much. You would almost need to cut a different coat to accommodate this new button stance.
alden wrote:I imagine, to be serious, that this is some sort of military coat made for the Duke to be worn at special functions of state..at least, I hope so.
Cheers
Michael
Being a greatcoat, the design was most probably - as you suggest - not a matter of preference. I would say this is one of the cases where "form follows function" - the latter being the one couch very well described. And even if the coat is not elegant (in our acception of the word), it does have character and looks balanced to me if judged as a whole, starting from function. Even the extra pocket may be functional here, since it gives the wearer more easily accessible storage room (you wouldn't want to unbutton your greatcoat on the deck of a ship sailing in the North Sea in November to reach for something in an inside pocket).
But has anyone noticed how the right side overlaps the left one, like on a ladies' coat? This is even more strange since the picture is published in a book as such (and the page was not flipped).
PS: This is all for the sake of balance in the debate, since I actually agree that "extras" do nothing but spoil the line of a garment - but these "extras" are usually meant to recall originally functional elements and, when they are truly functional, they may be justified. Like a suede patch at the shoulder of a hunting jacket.