Doublet Jacket (19)

Doublet Jacket

A doublet is a man's snug-fitting buttoned jacket that is shaped and fitted to the man's body which was worn in Western Europe from the late Middle Ages through to the mid-17th century. The doublet was hip length or waist length and worn over the shirt or drawers. Until the end of the 15th century the doublet was worn under another layer of clothing such as a gown, mantle, or overtunic. The term also refers to a formal jacket worn with highland dress, a variation of which is called an Argyll jacket or Prince Charlie jacket (or coatee).

Originally it was a mere stitched and quilted lining ("doubling"), worn under a hauberk or cuirass to prevent bruising and chafing. Doublets were frequently opened to the waistline in a deep V. The edges might be left free or laced across the shirt front. If there was space left it might be filled with a stomacher. By the 1520s, the edges of the doublet met at the center front. Then, like many other originally practical items in the history of men's wear, from the late 15th century onward it became elaborated enough to be seen on its own. A similar jacket, the sherwani, is worn today in India.

Throughout the 300 years of its use, the doublet served the same purpose: to give fashionable shape and padding to the body, to support the hose by providing ties, and to provide warmth to the body. The only thing that changed about the doublet over its history was its style and cut.

History

The doublet developed from the padded garments worn under armour, such as the gambeson, aketon, arming doublet.

Doublets of the 14th and 15th centuries were generally hip-length, sometimes, shorter, worn over the shirt and hose, with a houppelande or other form of overgown.

From the late 14th century, doublets were cut and padded to give the wearer an egg-shaped or pigeon-breasted silhouette, a fashion that gradually died out in favor of a flatter natural fit.

Through the Tudor period, fashionable doublets remained close-fitting with tight sleeves, but acquired long skirts and elaborate surface decoration such as pinks (patterns of small cuts in the fabric), slashes, embroidery, and applied braid.

In the early Elizabethan period, doublets were padded over the belly with bombast in a "pouter pigeon" or "peascod" silhouette. Sleeve attachments at the shoulder were disguised by decorative wings, tabs, or piccadills, and short skirt-like peplums or piccadills covered the waist of the hose or breeches. Padding gradually fell out of fashion again, and the doublet became close-fitting with a deep V-waistline.

Double-Breasted Jacket(18)

Double-breasted

In clothing, the term double-breasted refers to a coat or jacket with wide, overlapping front flaps and two parallel columns of buttons or snaps; by contrast, a single-breasted coat has a narrow overlap and only one column of buttons. In most modern double-breast

ed coats, one column of buttons is decorative, while the other functional. The other buttons, placed on the outside edge of the coat breast, allow the overlap to fasten reversibly, right lapel over left lapel. To strengthen the fastening, a functional inner-button, called the jigger (or anchor button), is usually added to parallel-fasten the over-lapped layers together from the inside.

Suit jackets and blazers typically have one to four rows of buttons (each row containing two buttons), one or two of the rows functional. Each fastening method is identified using "number-on-number" terminology; the first number is the total number of front buttons, the second is the number of fastening buttons below the lapels (i.e. the second number also is the number of corresponding buttonholes). Six-on-two and six-on-one (as shown in the picture on the right) are the common button stances, but others exist. Stylistically, double-breasted suit jackets usually have peaked lapels, and fasten left lapel over right lapel as usual for men's jackets.

The original double-breasted jacket has six buttons, with three to close. This originated from the naval reefer jacket. Because shorter men may find that six buttons overwhelms their shorter torso, a four or six button configuration in which only the bottom one fastens may be a better option. The four-button double-breasted jacket that buttons at the lower button is often called the "Kent", after the man who made it popular—the Duke of Kent

Double-breasted suit jackets were popular from the mid-1930s until the late 1950s, and again from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. Today, double-breasted jackets are not as popular, and it is difficult to find them at many retail clothing stores; however, they continue to be produced for and advocated by the high-end menswear lines of Joseph Abboud and Ralph Lauren, as well as by bespoke tailors such as Thomas Mahon; they have also seen a small comeback in European and American youth fashion, albeit in a slimmer, more modern cut.

Moreover, the overcoats—Pea coat and trench coat—are traditionally double-breasted; the single-breasted versions being civilian interpretations of a military fashion. Due to the double-breasted jacket's construction, it is usually not recommended to wear a double-breasted lounge suit unbuttoned, unlike the single-breasted jacket, which can be left open or unbuttoned. This is because the large amounts of overlapping fabric on a double-breasted jacket tend to gather at the sides when unbuttoned. There are, however, formal jackets which are designed to be worn unbuttoned, with a vest: These are designed to avoid the perceived unsightly gathering

Donkey Jacket (17)

Donkey jacket

A donkey jacket is a short buttoned coat, typically made of unlined black or dark blue woolen material; originally worn as a work jacket in the United Kingdom.

Design

The donkey jacket is derived from the wool sack coat worn by workers in the 19th century, and the Oxford English Dictionary references the term as first used in 1929: "one with leather shoulders and back". There is often a plastic panel covering the shoulder-blade areas. This panel can be plain black or grey, or fluorescent orange or yellow for conspicuousness and for night use. When used as a work jacket, it sometimes bears the name of the company which supplies the jacket, or the name of the company for which the wearer works. The jacket usually has two capacious side pockets, and sometimes an inside "poacher's pocket".

Social significance

The donkey jacket is regarded as typical of the British manual laborer and trade unionist as well as members of the political left. It is also favored by traditionalist skinheads. Former British Labor Party leader Michael Foot was criticized for supposedly wearing a donkey jacket at a Remembrance Day wreath laying ceremony and he was shown wearing one on several covers of the satirical magazine Private Eye; it was a "very expensive short overcoat" chosen by his wife.

Cut-off Jacket (16)

Cut-off

A cut-off, also known as a kutte or "battle jacket" / "battlevest" in heavy metal subcultures, is a type of vest or jacket which originated in the biker subculture and has now found popularity in the punk and various heavy metal subcultures. Biker, metal and punk subcultures differ in how the garment itself is prepared, what decorations are applied, and how this is done.

Cut-offs are usually made from leather or denim jackets with their sleeves removed, or cut very short, and often adorned with patches, badges and painted artwork that display motorcycle club affiliations known as colors, or alternatively band names, political affiliations, beliefs or sexual acts performed.

In the 1970s and 1980s, cut-offs were almost always blue denim. Thrash metal fans favored heavily washed denim, while members of one British motorcycle club bleached theirs until they were almost white. From the mid to late 1990s, some punks and metalheads have worn multi-pocketed hunting or fishing vests, both in plain colours and camouflage patterns, and leather cut-offs—always popular with punks, and with bikers in recent decades.

The word Kutte (plural: Kutten) is a German loanword which literally references the religious habit of a Christian monk (from the Latin cotta, cf. Engl. coat) but that is also, in a tongue-in-cheek fashion, used for Cut-offs.

Punk and hardcore

In punk subculture, cut-offs are often leather (but can also be denim). Typical decorations are metal studs and badges (often painted-on) of bands or political causes, with cloth patches being secondary, ultimately because of the difficulty of doing the required needlework on tough leather. In addition, sleeves are more likely to be kept attached to the body of the jacket. As part of the DIY philosophy of the hardcore punk scene, the vests may be home-repaired with heavy thread, dental floss, or safety pins, and the band logos may be put on using paint and crude home-made stencils. Some wearers also drape chains or other paraphernalia from the vest

Cut-offs in the heavy metal scene are often adorned with patches of logos and album covers of bands, ranging in size from small square patches to large patches that fill the back panel of the vest. Patches are the main decoration; however, some Heavy Metal kutten have studs on them, particularly for fans of crossover thrash bands such as mid-1980s Discharge or of thrash metal.

Cooper A-2 jacket (15)

Cooper A-2 jacket

The Cooper A-2 (flight jacket or flying jacket) is a leather jacket, made by Cooper Sportswear, worn by United States Army Air Forces and United States Air Force pilots, during World War II. It was replaced after World War Two by nylon versions of the jacket, though it continued to be worn operationally during the Korean War by World War II veterans called back into service. It was re-introduced by the military just prior to Operation Desert Shield, with a modification to allow for modern insignia on the front of the jacket, and has been in service ever since.

Key features of a military-specification jacket (as opposed to a civilian version) are one-piece back (some knock-off jackets have a seam across the shoulder blades; this seam causes discomfort during long flights in a confined position) and lack of side-entry hand-warmer pockets under the large snap-down patch pockets (apparently, the military designers did not want their pilots to be seen standing around with their hands in their pockets and believed that a lack of hand-warmer pockets would force pilots to be more productive and appear more professional) and no interior pocket.

Other key features include horsehide or goatskin leather for the shell, dual-knit waist and wrist cuffs, full-length brass zipper, two brass grommets under each armpit for ventilation, a metal hook under the collar to fasten the top of the opening, and snap-down collar so the tips won't blow around from propwash and jetwash. Seams on the arms of the jacket run along the backside of the pattern, so as not to interfere with movement of the arms along the sides of the torso in confined spaces. Military specifications did not provide for insulation of the A-2 model.

New-build A-2s for USAF members include a velcro patch on the left breast for removable insignia, whereas World War Two models had a thin 1-inch high by 4-inch long leather name tag sewn or glued directly to the leather jacket.

Cooper Sportswear ceased production in the late 90's and retailer inventories were exhausted some time afterwards. Even though the A-2 is still a military-requisitioned item and contracts have been awarded to other USA suppliers using the A-2 pattern, the Cooper label is considered collectible and highly sought after by World War II re-enactors and historians. A vintage Cooper A-2 in excellent condition can be worth more than the market rate of a new-build A-2 from a current manufacturer.

Coatee Jacket (14)

Coatee

A coatee was a type of tight fitting uniform coat or jacket, which was waist length at the front and had short tails behind. The coatee began to replace the long tail coat in western armies at the end of the eighteenth century, but was itself superseded by the tunic in the mid nineteenth century.

A coatee, worn with a waistcoat or vest, remains part of formal Highland dress