I thought I would share my currently ongoing project of a bespoke peacoat. What I wanted was a versatile piece that can be used heavily during autumn and winter for my every day biking. What I needed was a sturdy wool fabric that can take a beating, but at the same time have some visual interest (why I discarded melton). I then found this limited edition twill wool from Fox (24/25 oz), a closeup of which can be seen here:
To be fair, I don't really know if peacoat is the right term at all; in reality I guess it's something in between a peacoat, a guard's coat and a reefer. I was inspired by these sketches made by David Taub, although maybe slightly less eccentric than some of Taub's work:
Fortunately, my tailor was all for the idea, though he had some strong views himself and persuaded me to discard some of my initial. For instance, I had suggested to add a curved yoke that would meet the seem of the sleeves, but he argued that it would not look good with the biased shoulder seem he prefers to cut. "Of course" as he added "I could do a straight shoulder seam instead, but then it would look like ready to wear, so I'd really prefer not to." Of course I respected this, and we went on to discuss other issues. Two weeks after our first meeting I had the basted fitting, and the coat looked like this:
Yesterday, I had my forward fitting, and I have to say that I think it's coming along nicely. The coat will be taken in slightly at the waist, and I also asked him to widen the half belt by 1 cm. With such broad lapels and collar I think it's nice to have substantial features of the coat overall, so the sleeves will also feature large turn-ups – and hidden cuff button
The pockets will also be altered to have flaps and button closure. As can be seen, the collar is made to be reversible, so my tailor has put a lot of very tight hand stitches in it so it now rolls like a dream. The same can be said about the lapels, which are of course made to cater to different closing options.
Though the coat will be taken slightly in at the waist, the idea is to have enough room to wear it with a sweater underneath on the coldest of days, and for this reason the half belt will be adjustable. And now the waiting time begins – the next time I see my tailor he will have finished the sewing, and we will agree on the final details including choice of buttons.
Anyway, I hope this was inspirational to some
Cheers,
Soren
