S.E.H Kelly

[mebro2]

... and in terms of what works best with our knitwear, I hope that they're all equally viable — they're not at all separate in my mind in that respect. I am sure we've photographed them in every combination over the years!

Outstanding, I appreciate your thoughts and detailed feedback!

 

[sehkelly]

Here's one!

Finally.

More to come.

View attachment 2171567

More!

 

[sehkelly]

Very much in the spirit of "why not" and true to our mission statement that one can never develop too many coats, we've started work on a polo coat.

This one will likely be a buttonless style, going back to the days when people playing polo were much too tired to fasten their coats between games and relied instead on a belt (true historical fact).

In that respect, it is similar to the tielocken.

Big, anyway -- big coat, big cloth.

The back is the part that interests me most: it looks like an inversion of what we normally do on a coat, with the boxy part of a box pleat facing outwards. It's a little different from that, in execution, but it has that look and means that when you tighten the belt, you get some really satisfying folds at the rear.

 

[sehkelly]

I should add, if only to see off any further enquiries about my decision-making faculties, that it indeed does not yet have a collar, but it will: we are working on that this week.

It does at least have sleeves, which are the half-raglan variety we've used once or twice before, which have the shoulder seams not run into the neck circle as a full raglan, but stop someway short. You still get that nice soft line over the shoulder, however. The sleeve itself is three pieces, so there is a good tailored shape to them already, with nice pitch, which can be seen above with the very (very) straight line of the top sleeve seam.

It will probably have full turn-back cuffs, very big patch pockets, and, well, we'll see how it develops, but it is flowing quite nicely at this stage.

 

[Csus2]

How long will the polo be compared to your other coats

 

[Spaghettimatt]

Looks great. What are you thinking for cloth? I suspect camelhair would be too expensive and maybe not within your "palette" so to speak?

 

[sehkelly]

Looks great. What are you thinking for cloth? I suspect camelhair would be too expensive and maybe not within your "palette" so to speak?

I think the world needs fewer polo coats in camelhair, not more! *

Especially not from me.

There seem to be lots of natural woollens about the place at the moment, made with the wool of British sheep from a few of our regular mills. Similar to the Herdwick tweed that we use and varying in weights and qualities. Methinks the British Wool (tm) company has been at work!

Anyway, a few of them are really good, thick, buoyant, and more in keeping with our way of business than camelhair.

We'll see, though, as this isn't a coat that'll be released any time soon.

* I do like camelhair, but would rather use it for something unexpected, I guess, like a workwear style.

 

[sehkelly]

How long will the polo be compared to your other coats

It will certainly be one of the longer ones.

This is being developed at the same time as the British Warm — albeit the British Warm is nearly complete — and being as they're both semi-tailored DB overcoats, we've been careful to give them their own lanes, so to speak, in which to function and specialise.

The British Warm will be the shorter and more formal of the two and has found its patch pockets pinched by the polo coat.

The polo coat will be a bigger coat overall, likely with wider lapels, longer, and made in a thicker cloth than the Warm. The nature of the back of the polo coat, with the military overcoat-style pleat setup, likely necessitates it being quite long anyway: at least as long as the greatcoat.

 

[ppk]

It will certainly be one of the longer ones.

This is being developed at the same time as the British Warm — albeit the British Warm is nearly complete — and being as they're both semi-tailored DB overcoats, we've been careful to give them their own lanes, so to speak, in which to function and specialise.

The British Warm will be the shorter and more formal of the two and has found its patch pockets pinched by the polo coat.

The polo coat will be a bigger coat overall, likely with wider lapels, longer, and made in a thicker cloth than the Warm. The nature of the back of the polo coat, with the military overcoat-style pleat setup, likely necessitates it being quite long anyway: at least as long as the greatcoat.

Hi Paul,

Have your posted pictures of the British Warm? If not can you please? Thanks.

 

[sehkelly]

Have your posted pictures of the British Warm? If not can you please? Thanks.

Yep -- a few weeks ago ... albeit they're characteristically oblique (but since quite a lot has changed in the lower half of the coat since they were taken, prophetically, in this instance).

It will probably have a chest pocket, too.

This one is on track for the autumn.

 

[RozenKristal]

Man it looks great.

 

[Csus2]

It will certainly be one of the longer ones.

This is being developed at the same time as the British Warm — albeit the British Warm is nearly complete — and being as they're both semi-tailored DB overcoats, we've been careful to give them their own lanes, so to speak, in which to function and specialise.

The British Warm will be the shorter and more formal of the two and has found its patch pockets pinched by the polo coat.

The polo coat will be a bigger coat overall, likely with wider lapels, longer, and made in a thicker cloth than the Warm. The nature of the back of the polo coat, with the military overcoat-style pleat setup, likely necessitates it being quite long anyway: at least as long as the greatcoat.

*at least* as long as the greatcoat? Jeez Louise that is going to be a big coat.

Here I was hankering after the upcoming tweed Ulster, but now I am plagued by doubts. Your double-breasted coat selection is getting out of hand, Paul.


Oh and this is out of the blue, but, whatever happened to the paddock jacket?

 

[sehkelly]

Oh and this is out of the blue, but, whatever happened to the paddock jacket?

You have a good memory!

The paddock jacket hasn't gone anywhere, but hasn't been properly looked at again since development stopped a couple of years ago.

It is nearly there, but there's a bit too much going on: like there's two ideas fighting for space in one jacket, and it isn't obvious to me yet how to pick them apart. There's a belt and pocket system which is just slightly too complicated or convoluted for my liking, but once that's settled, and we have some time to go back to it, it'll eventually see light of day.

I showed the most recent sample to a friend the other day and he said, "Yeah, quite a lot going on with that one, hey?" which basically and succinctly cemented my feelings on the matter!

 

[sehkelly]

*at least* as long as the greatcoat? Jeez Louise that is going to be a big coat.

Here I was hankering after the upcoming tweed Ulster, but now I am plagued by doubts. Your double-breasted coat selection is getting out of hand, Paul.

You have rumbled my plan to take over the world one big double-breasted coat at a time.

There's a lot of overlap with these traditional styles of coat, but they each occupy their own niche, and have their own entirely distinct histories and reasons for being what they are, whether the trench or Ulster or tielocken. I find that fascinating.

And often when we're working on one, some of the ideas, either used or rejected, would be perfectly applicable to one of the others. It happens all the time. Like with the British Warm, we hoped to give it a quite distinctive and flamboyant back, but realised slowly that this seemed at odds with the character of a British Warm, which I conceive as quite serious and proper (maybe there's something in that name) and that it would make a lot more sense on a polo coat. And then that served as the basis for the whole development of the polo coat (strange as it sounds to build an idea for a coat from rear forwards).

Between these two and the Ulster and the tielocken, there's been a lot of ideas spill, back and forth, so that each is wholly its own distinct idea, with its own pockets, sleeve construction, collar, belt or back system, with no duplication of ideas. Likewise ensuring they don't tread on the toes of the trench or peacoat or greatcoat or whichever other coats I've forgotten about. This is before we consider the suitable cloth for each one which will hopefully further separate them and give each room to breathe.

I find it endlessly fertile and interesting territory, and juggling it all in my mind just keeps me so happily busy. Doesn't make me much fun at dinner parties, however.