THE JOURNAL
Anyone with a passing interest in menswear will know that many of the clothes that occupy our wardrobes owe their original designs not to creative expression, but utilitarian function. The American bomber jackets that first appeared in WWI and WWII were cropped so that the wearer could sit unencumbered in the cockpit, just as the roomy French chore coat had its sleeves attached at a more pronounced angle to facilitate freer and more comfortable movement. As these honest garments wended their way through society, they gathered meaning along the way. By the time Lou Reed and Sid Vicious wore black double riders with trim black jeans and leather combat boots, these three utilitarian items had become symbols of anti-establishment identity, even though their cut and detailing were initially made for bikers, miners and soldiers, respectively.
The same is true of the overcoat, the most dramatic garment in menswear. Back when men’s dress was governed by time, place and occasion (TPO), certain overcoats were made to be worn over dark worsted suits when men were doing business in London, while others were designed to be teamed with Shetland knits and tweed sport coats for sporting in the blustery countryside of Scotland. Out of these emerged specific details, such as collars that could be turned up against the wind or pockets that could keep frigid hands warm.
Design conventions today are not as strict, as designers mix and match details to create a new language. But through learning the history of certain overcoats, we can better understand how to style them – and which might be best for our lifestyle.
01. The country balmacaan
Set in Glen Urquhart, a valley just west of Loch Ness in Scotland, the erstwhile Balmacaan Estate occupies the sort of Highland territory that seems to dictate its own dress code. Here, wet, rolling moorland is folded into heathered hillsides, which are punctuated with Scots pine forests and streams that thread their way toward the loch below. Just as Donegal tweed is named after Donegal County in Ireland, this area of the world christened two menswear classics: the glen check pattern, originally woven for gamekeepers in Glen Urquhart, and the balmacaan overcoat, named after this Scottish estate.
The balmacaan is a single-breasted overcoat with a Prussian collar, slash pockets and raglan sleeves. Unlike the classic set-in sleeve – which you’ll find on most suit jackets, dress shirts and T-shirts – the raglan’s single continuous sleeve design runs from the neck to the underarm, attached to the body using two diagonal seams. Along with offering greater freedom of movement, its real advantage is its performance in the rain. On a set-in sleeve, water can pool in the horizontal seam at the edge of your shoulder, eventually penetrating through. But on a raglan, it’s more likely to slide right off.
Consider a balmacaan if you want an overcoat that pairs easily with casualwear. The raglan-sleeve construction not only sheds water more effectively, but it also gives the coat a softer, more relaxed line through the shoulders. Worn loose and long enough to stir about the calves, it should fit comfortably over other garments since it doesn’t have a horizontal shoulder seam. It slips easily over chunky sweaters and even a mid-layer jacket – such as denim truckers or tweedy sport coats – when the weather turns especially cold.
In the taxonomy of outerwear, the balmacaan’s loose, unstructured silhouette and rustic roots make it agreeably unpretentious and the most casual option.
02. The city mac
If the balmacaan is rooted in country living, then the mackintosh is its urban counterpart. Not that you can’t wear either in both environments – traditional rules governing dress faded a long time ago – but their history shapes how we see them today. Whereas the balmacaan can be casual and rustic, the mac looks sleek and polished.
In 1823, a Scottish chemist named Charles Macintosh struck upon a way to make fabric more waterproof by sandwiching a layer of dissolved rubber between two layers of material. This created a flexible, water-impermeable fabric that could be cut and sewn into outerwear. He turned this fabric into a single-breasted raincoat with a turndown collar – the mackintosh, as it would become known – but early versions had their problems. They stiffened in the winter cold, melted in the summer heat and gave off such a stench that they repelled more than water. But as the company perfected the design and stabilised the material, the clean-cut mackintosh with its streamlined silhouette became popular among the upwardly mobile classes in Britain.
In the mid-19th century, well-to-do lawyers, clerks and shopkeepers wore mackintosh raincoats over their frock coats and worsted suits in industrialising cities. Eventually, the term “mac” came to represent any streamlined, single-breasted raincoat – much like how Kleenex is used to describe any disposable tissue paper – even if it has nothing to do with the original company.
Macs can be made from any number of materials today, not just the rubberised cotton used two centuries ago. Something in a coated cotton, wool gabardine, or polyester shell will drape much more fluidly while offering similar protection. Wear it over suits, sport coats and thicker casualwear to fill out the space inside. Designed for rain rather than chill, the mac brings a cleaner, more metropolitan sensibility than its country-bred cousin, above.
03. The double-breasted ulster
Men in the early half of the 19th century faced a problem: the greatcoat borrowed from soldier uniforms offered tremendous warmth and weather protection with its short rain-cape. However, it was bulky, heavy and quickly burdened the shoulders for anyone who wasn’t a coach driver. At the same time, the lighter and dressier Chesterfield looked smart but offered little protection. They needed an in-between option, which they found through Irish tailor John McGee.
McGee created a new design that sat between these two worlds: a double-breasted overcoat with a belted waist to give shape and a giant collar that could be turned up to protect the wearer from wind and cold. He called it the ulster, named after the frigid northern province of Ireland.
The ulster eventually outlived many of the outerwear styles of its day, including the surtout, Inverness cape and deliciously named wraprascal. Much of its success is due to McGee replacing the cape with a simplified double-breasted closure, which allowed the design to speak directly to the tailoring styles that have lasted into the 21st century.
The simple template also gave other tailors the opportunity to put their own spin on things. In Florence, Italy, some of the best bespoke tailors produce ulster coats from a heavy 30-ounce navy wool, making a historically casual garment look a bit dressier.
In the right material, the ulster today can be used with everything from business suits to cream-coloured fisherman knits and raw denim jeans. A glen check version allows a country coat to look a bit more metropolitan, riding the fine line between formal and informal. The critical thing is to pop the back of the collar. Not only will this shield you from wind, but it also adds some panache.
04. The practical car coat
The invention of the Ford Model T, widely regarded as the first mass-affordable automobile, transformed society in two ways. First, it changed where we lived and worked, shifting populations from urban centres out to the exurbs and suburbs. Second, it transformed how we dressed. The automobile clipped the top and bottom portions of men’s outfits, removing the need for the top hats, bowlers and tweed flat caps that men once wore. It also made overcoats shorter.
For a century prior, most men’s overcoats reached to at least their knees. But as they found that long overcoats dragged behind them when they entered and exited automobiles, the overcoat climbed up and up. By the turn of the 21st century, the slim-fit revolution – which shrank men’s clothing in every direction – almost made long overcoats disappear completely from high-end boutiques.
Along with offering more warmth and weather protection, a long overcoat exudes confident swagger. It swishes around your knees when you walk, announcing your entrance and adding drama to an outfit. However, the shorter car coat is often just more practical and less cumbersome. In a simple black wool, it can still look sleek and sophisticated when teamed with grey flannel trousers, a cream sweater and black boots.
The car coat is the contemporary, more practical design for those who want something that won’t take up an entire sectional seat when they eat at a restaurant. Just make sure these go at least mid-thigh – anything shorter should be called a jacket.