Who wears a duffle coat?
A duffle coat is a single-breasted woolen coat of a straight cut with a loose hood, patch pockets and the characteristic oblong fasteners. It passed a way from clothes of the British seamen of World War I times to the most popular trend among dandies of both genders and all ages. Who wears a duffle coat now?
Old salts
Originally a warm and comfortable coat was sewed for English military seamen: thick woolen fabric under the name of duffle wasn't blown through by the wind and stayed dry for a long time, the big hood could even be worn over a peaked cap, and pockets allowed to keep and easily get all necessary things out.
A duffle coat migrated from militants to civilians, and in the 60th of the XX century the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent caused the second wave of popularity of this coat by creating a collection inspired by sea naval theme.
The duffle coat is worn by men who make an impression of self-assured people and prefer free courageous simplicity to serious classics seasoned with a note of severe romanticism to serious classics. It is important for them that the clothes are comfortable and functional. They do respect the style as well but they do it with such graceful negligence as if it turns out to be a matter of course.
Lovely ladies
Men's and women’s clothes have mixed long time ago, and both genders are almost free now in their choice of clothes. The fashion for men's accessories and elements of a suit elements among women asserted itself in the last century, and now it has only strengthened its rights.
The women's duffle coat is already an accustomed phenomenon and has gained great popularity. Its fans opt for a slight imitation of a masculine style and mischievous elegance. These girls don't wear high heels, but go for jockey boots, army boots or derby — the footwear which is also "borrowed" from the sterner sex. They choose bigger and smarter bags, or even backpacks.
However, a woman always remains a woman: a simple duffle coat silhouette is complemented by some feminine details and is usually worn with skirts and dresses.
Preppy longstocking
No-no, it’s not a misprint: we are not talking about the main character of children's stories, but style under the nice name "preppy". At first this concept united golden youth of the USA: students of prestigious colleges in the north of the country, future students of elite universities. Soon the word 'preppy' was used for everything that related to students and student life — clothes style, behavior, manners.
Preppy means simplicity, excellent manners, friendliness and meticulous care of the reputation. Clothes style gathered traits of a school uniform, clothes for tennis, golf and a lacrosse. Thanks to its simple and at the same time unusual cut, laconic forethought and natural fabric the duffle coat also won recognition among the "elite club" followers. Preppies wear exclusively expensive and high quality clothes made from such fabrics as wool, cotton and cashmere, and no synthetics. A good quality duffle coat perfectly meets these requirements, and a wide choice of colouring allows it to make a basis of any outfit. The preppy wardrobe is dominated by bright colours such as white, dark blue, red, pink, green and blue, and among patterns tartan and rhombuses are especially popular.
Would you like to smooth the gravity of your image and add to it a little bit of man’s romanticism, or if you are going to have a wardrobe full of trendy preppy style clothes, then the duffle coat will serve you no worse than it did serve the British seamen in their time.