Vintage British-Made Men's Overcoats — Voted by the Community

The men's overcoat grew out of the greatcoat, a long, heavy woollen coat worn for warmth and protection from the weather. In the Regency era, roughly the 1790s to the 1830s, fashionable greatcoats often had several short capes at the shoulders. Lighter tailored overcoats followed in the nineteenth century. The Chesterfield appeared in Britain around the 1840s and is named after an Earl of Chesterfield, a leader of fashion at the time. It gradually replaced the over-frock coat in the second half of the century and remained a staple of men's wardrobes from the 1920s to the 1960s. In 1866 McGee & Co, an outfitter in Belfast, introduced the Ulster, a heavy double-breasted overcoat with a collar that could be turned up against wind and cold. The polo coat began as a camel-hair coat that British polo players wore between chukkas, although it became popular in the United States rather than at home. British-made overcoats today continue this tradition of heavy wool cloth and tailored construction, made for cold and wet weather.