Coat and Jacket Styles: A Reference Guide

The tailored end of outerwear includes the blazer, the overcoat and the topcoat, all built with the internal canvas and shaped panels of tailoring. The chesterfield is a formal, fly-front overcoat with a velvet collar; the polo coat is a relaxed double-breasted camel-hair style. These coats share the engineered structure of a suit jacket scaled up for warmth.

Their defining quality is the hidden shaping that lets them hold a clean line over other clothing. They are the most technical outerwear to draft, because the canvas, lapel and collar all work as an interdependent system.

• Trench: belted, double-breasted gabardine coat with storm flaps and epaulettes.
• Pea coat: short, double-breasted wool coat with a broad collar, from naval uniform.
• Duffle: hip-length wool coat with toggle fastenings and a hood.
• Parka: long, hooded, insulated coat built for extreme cold.
• Field jacket: hip-length utility jacket with multiple flap pockets.

Casual jackets are shorter, softer and usually unstructured. The bomber, descended from flight jackets, gathers at the waist and cuffs with ribbed knit; the denim or trucker jacket uses a yoked, pocketed cut in rigid cotton; the harrington is a light zip-up blouson with a checked lining. Each reads as relaxed rather than tailored.

These jackets rely on the cut and the fabric rather than internal structure for their shape. The bomber's shape, for instance, comes entirely from its ribbed hem and cuffs drawing the body in, not from any canvas or padding.

Two variables help place any coat: length and closure. Length runs from cropped and hip-length through knee and below-the-knee to full-length, and it strongly affects both warmth and formality. Closure runs from single-breasted through double-breasted to zip, toggle and wrap, each carrying its own character.

A double-breasted closure reads as more formal and traditional; a zip as more casual and sporty. Reading length and closure together quickly narrows down what a coat is, even before its origin is considered.

Outerwear must fit over other clothing, so its patterns carry more ease than a garment worn next to the body, and that ease has to be distributed to allow a jacket or knitwear underneath without looking bulky. Sleeve and armhole room, shoulder width and body ease all increase in a considered way.

Because layering ease is a judgment tied to the wearer and their typical clothing, made-to-measure outerwear can dial it in precisely. Minerva Patterns supplies coat and jacket patterns in DXF AAMA, PLT and PDF built to individual measurements with appropriate layering ease.