Overcoat Project

[YoungLawyer]

This needs more radical surgery. I think a combination of a slightly too high waist, slightly too little fabric on the pleats, the off pocket height, and something in the way the lining is done means these pleats might be difficult to make neat. I might be best off by having a waist seam cut in the back panel, and finishing this with a long centre vent. I'm undecided. The annoying thing is that it has, not well illustrated in the pictures, so nearly worked! Above the waist, with a few minor adjustments, would be fine.

The picture links might work now.

[Frederic Leighton]

YoungLawyer, thank you for fixing the photos!

To me it looks a bit like the overcoat is slipping backwards from not wearing it properly on top of the jacket. The jacket collar is visible on the front and on the back of the coat. If you pulled the overcoat up a little, closer to the neck and hiding the jacket completely, you might already get a better fit even before seeing your tailor. That could reduce the pulling at the top button and even clean the lines between your shoulder blades.

Very difficult to judge the back pleats. I doubt closing them for 1 inch at the top would fix much. Maybe something can be done at hem level? I wonder whether more cloth (on the inside) could prevent the cloth from folding up that much, or a layer of stiffer material can be used to give shape to the hem. The problem could even be the opposite: an excess of material at the hem/pleats that pulls all the coat backwards (I don't think this is the case, but it could be worth a check).

[hectorm]

The picture links might work now.

Dear YL,
you got yourself a very handsome overcoat!
Yes, there is some tension going on at the front that I hope can be fixed by wearing the OC with a lighter jacket and better accommodating it on your shoulders. Remember that style of overcoat is not cut to be worn with heavy tweeds. Moving the four top buttons (or all of them, to keep balance, including the one inside the coat) to their natural placing (the one dictated by the buttonholes on the fully extended cloth) maybe necessary.
Regarding the back: I don't think it looks bad although I agree that as a bespoke coat it should be neater. A back with 2 closed pleats is a extremely rare sighting nowadays so I encourage you to keep the design. I suspect that the coat might be a bit tight around the hips and that the middle panel between pleats is too wide, all this creating some bunching and flaring at the hem level. The pleats should open when walking, and not -or almost nothing- when standing still. Your tailor can take care of it, for sure.

[rodes]

I like it. Nice length, cloth, design, fit across the shoulders. A few small areas to work out. Nothing that a skilled tailor cannot handle in short order. First bespoke overcoat can often be somewhat of a trial and error project and require a few adjustments. My first one was a foot too short due to a recording error. The tailor graciously agreed to remake the coat though I still had to wait several months and missed the winter. This coat will ultimately serve you well for many years.

[YoungLawyer]

Thank you for your messages, which encourage me to try and sort these problems out without remaking this to have a vent at this stage. Having worn this more, I think the collar allows the coat to slip down too easily, and this should be corrected. I hope this is a small problem that can be solved easily. Making sure that the collar is at the proper height does sort most of the problems with the upper back out. There is also a very slight imbalance from side to side - one side has settled to be fractionally higher than the other, and I hadn't noticed this in fitting.

I think, having looked at the pictures more carefully, the problem with the pleats is that there is insufficient material on the outside of the coat skirts on each side. The pleats are made from material that should be the skirt of the coat. I think that about 2/3rds of the cloth currently in the pleat should be released into the skirts on the outside, and new material used for the pleats. Additionally, the back panel is too wide at the waist, and this should be made 1/4" thinner on each side. Looking at old pictures and fashion plates, it seems that the skirt is always depicted with much more fullness. I'll go back in a week or so and ask for this to be corrected, and suggest my diagnosis of the problem. If the pleats were closed, I hope the back would hang better generally.

I don't know whether the thickness of the lining used has any material effect on how it hangs. Certainly, by comparison with my other, older, coat, the cloth used for lining is much thinner on this new one. It might be that a linen lining would have offered more support, and would help this keep its shape.

I'm still annoyed about the pocket placement, but recognise that's one thing that can't be changed now. I should have been more opinionated in fittings!

The waist seam placement, although high, isn't a disaster.