Polo Coat question

[Noble Savage]

Interestingly, the fine folks at The Anthology yesterday introduced a version of their Simon Crompton collaboration polo coat in a grey and white herringbone Donegal. The change of cloth changes the coat utterly, and to my eye makes the coat much less attractive and almost unrecognizable as a polo coat. The same design details are present as on the camelhair version, but the overall feel is completely different. Much more rustic, to me.

Looks fairly formal from a distance blending into a grey, but rustic from up close but with excessive details.

[Melcombe]

Interestingly, the fine folks at The Anthology yesterday introduced a version of their Simon Crompton collaboration polo coat in a grey and white herringbone Donegal. The change of cloth changes the coat utterly, and to my eye makes the coat much less attractive and almost unrecognizable as a polo coat. The same design details are present as on the camelhair version, but the overall feel is completely different. Much more rustic, to me.

I agree entirely. I'm not sure I like that Donegal tweed anyway, but I think that design takes the garment too far away from its supposed function.

There is a real attraction (to my view) in functional clothing - for example, the covert coat that has no sleeve buttons because buttons catch in a horse's harness or a hacking jacket that is long enough to look elegant when sitting on a horse. The functional design aesthetic has solid appeal well outside of the world of apparel as any designer will attest.

The polo coat is effectively a (rather elegant) tracksuit top, and something that looks as if the wearer could cast it off at any second to leap onto a fresh pony. I also think they look best when they are simple: camel for warmth - and similarity of colour reflecting that its origins are in a team sport. If you don't want to be a team player, get a paletot.

I also think that a breast pocket is a serious detraction from the design (flap or no!).

Which helps explain why I replied to a question in the Cloth Club Design Room thread that I would not be interested in a heavyweight grey herringbone tweed. I just don't find it to be an appealing cloth.

I have a 2BSB suit in a heavyweight charcoal fine herringbone tweed (from an old Dugdale's book) that gets a lot of use, but only when I know that I am going to be out and about or in unheated buildings all day at work. It's also as robust as you'd expect tweed to be - but I'm not sure that I have ever worn it outside of work other than to a sub-zero* funeral.

Best.
David.


(*that'll be Centigrade!)

[hectorm]

Thank you everyone for the replies.

I like those RL polo coats, their shape and length are good for RTW, but I can’t stand that flap haha.

So just wanted to understand why it’s there.

Polo coats, like most overcoats (and current men's clothing in general). have their origin in military garments. Field army jackets before the time of zippers and technical fabrics had flaps over their pockets for practical reasons. Sometimes even buttoned up. Some more modern garments just kept them mainly for style. Look for no further explanation.

[hectorm]

Interestingly, the fine folks at The Anthology yesterday introduced a version of their Simon Crompton collaboration polo coat in a grey and white herringbone Donegal. The change of cloth changes the coat utterly, and to my eye makes the coat much less attractive and almost unrecognizable as a polo coat. The same design details are present as on the camelhair version, but the overall feel is completely different. Much more rustic, to me.

Which helps explain why I replied to a question in the Cloth Club Design Room thread that I would not be interested in a heavyweight grey herringbone tweed. I just don't find it to be an appealing cloth.

According to the historians at Brooks Brothers, original Polo coats, a hundred years ago, were either grey or tan (camel), Not sure the grey ones were grey and white herringbone. I found only one photograph of a vintage specimen and it looks much darker than that. But students and polo players shared your esthetics, Andy, and soon the grey polos were extinct and never became a classic. I guess Crompton has done his research and just wanted to be "different", you know the guy.

[aston]

I agree that some of what Crompton does is a little odd. He conceived a coat in a color called British Warm..........

[Anikolov1]

Dear Aston,
It’s not the colour that’s called British Warm but rather the wool and its thickness. It’s inspired from the wool that Churchill wore to the meeting in Yalta. Very thick wool. There are several merchants who sell it but I am sure it’s nothing even remotely close to the original.

Alex

[aston]

Dear Aston,
It’s not the colour that’s called British Warm but rather the wool and its thickness. It’s inspired from the wool that Churchill wore to the meeting in Yalta. Very thick wool. There are several merchants who sell it but I am sure it’s nothing even remotely close to the original.

Alex

Dear Alex, that was exactly my point. He was trying to suggest it was a color! He Got a taupe colored wool and had it made up as a sort of loose fitting DB coat which he then referred to as being "..in Brisith Warm."

He promotes himself as an internationally recognised style expert, but sometime I wonder who he is trying to kid!

[andy57]

He promotes himself as an internationally recognised style expert, but sometime I wonder who he is trying to kid!

I ran into Simon Crompton on Friday in London (actually in The Service, on Savile Row). Simon is a nice fellow to talk to and we had a very pleasant chat. Coincidentally, I was wearing my The Anthology x Permanent Style polo coat. We discussed why he had designed it the way he had and that I preferred my coat to be longer. We also chatted about who he perceives his primary audience to be, the audience to which he he is directing his style advice. To no surprise, I think no one on this board is a member of that group.

I think Simon does a good job of giving good, middle-of-the-road advice to people who are looking for exactly that. He advocates a style that avoids "standing out", which, as he and I discussed is not so much my style.

[raykalendek]

I’ve searched, unsuccessfully, for a camel hair cloth worthy of the cost of make-up, but have been disappointed. Great cloth of an appropriate weight, excepting Michael’s 1000g cashmere, simply hasn’t been available anywhere for a decade. I was in O’Connell’s yesterday and found two iterations of polo coat that they offer: lovely, but more shadow than substance. I understand that a quintessential polo coat isn’t 1000g/m, but it still must be of high-quality cloth. Michael is the man to make this happen.

[hectorm]

I ran into Simon Crompton on Friday in London (actually in The Service, on Savile Row). Simon is a nice fellow to talk to and we had a very pleasant chat. Coincidentally, I was wearing my The Anthology x Permanent Style polo coat. We discussed why he had designed it the way he had and that I preferred my coat to be longer. We also chatted about who he perceives his primary audience to be, the audience to which he he is directing his style advice. To no surprise, I think no one on this board is a member of that group.

I think Simon does a good job of giving good, middle-of-the-road advice to people who are looking for exactly that. He advocates a style that avoids "standing out", which, as he and I discussed is not so much my style.

Do you know what the cloth used for Crompton´s polo coat is? Are you satisfied with its weight and hand?

[hectorm]

It’s not the colour that’s called British Warm but rather the wool and its thickness. It’s inspired from the wool that Churchill wore to the meeting in Yalta. Very thick wool. There are several merchants who sell it but I am sure it’s nothing even remotely close to the original.

Alex

I've seen and felt a few vintage British Warms in my time (mainly in WWII museums nowadays). A bit stiff and rough for my taste. I believe that the 840 gr. great cloth from Fox Brothers is the closest thing you can get to the original today, and even with a better hand than the old stuff.

[andy57]

I ran into Simon Crompton on Friday in London (actually in The Service, on Savile Row). Simon is a nice fellow to talk to and we had a very pleasant chat. Coincidentally, I was wearing my The Anthology x Permanent Style polo coat. We discussed why he had designed it the way he had and that I preferred my coat to be longer. We also chatted about who he perceives his primary audience to be, the audience to which he he is directing his style advice. To no surprise, I think no one on this board is a member of that group.

I think Simon does a good job of giving good, middle-of-the-road advice to people who are looking for exactly that. He advocates a style that avoids "standing out", which, as he and I discussed is not so much my style.

Do you know what the cloth used for Crompton´s polo coat is? Are you satisfied with its weight and hand?

I don't know the details. The team at The Anthology sourced it. I am very satisfied with the weight. It's a serious camel hair and quite heavy. It is a good, solid camel hair.