Wherever you go you’ll meet this coat

Esquire, May 1935: “We talked about this raglan sleeved tweed topcoat last month and we’ll probably have to come back to it again more than once in the future, because as a fashion item it’s going, and growing, like a snowball down hill.

“The P. of W. started it (we hope you can’t penetrate that incognito because every month we swear off mentioning his name in these pages again) and you can recognise it by its fly front and peaked lapels, as well as by its slash pockets and bold checked pattern.

“The rest of the outfit, in this instance, consists of a brown Shetland sports jacket and grey flannel slacks, shoes of brown calf, with red rubber soles and heels, in a wing tipped model, a red madder foulard muffler with a yellow Paisley design, which obviates the necessity for collar and tie and a grey Glen Urquhart cap. Note, we beg of you, that the cap shouldn’t match the coat, either in colour or pattern.”

Coats don’t really follow fashions these days – mostly because men don’t buy another long coat until the last one has fallen apart – but even if they did I can’t see this catching on. Too sporty, too bright and really only for the man that already has a half dozen coats at least sitting in his wardrobe. Ignoring the cloth, though, I like the design: slash pockets, raglan sleeve, fly front (covered buttons) and turn-back cuffs. I’m not sure the peaked lapel fits in, however – a little too sharp for the otherwise informal design; notches might be better.

And the image reminds me, I need some pale grey flannel trousers for winter. Heavy and cuffed, but pale enough to pair with mid-brown shoes such as his.