Holli Michele last wrote for The Toast about running a vintage shop without losing your mind.
So, I have a deep and abiding love of midcentury fashion: one that does not extend to wanting to live Back Then. Given a time machine, I’d zip out to 1953 for exactly long enough to go shopping, and then high-tail it back to the era of reliable internet access and slightly less oppressive gender roles. And of all the vintage pieces I covet, first on the list is the princess coat.
Princess coats are, technically, named for the princess seams that run vertically over the bust. But I always think of them as coats you wear to feel like a pretty, pretty princess: with wide, swishy skirts and nipped-in waists, they automatically level up your Fanciness attribute no matter what you’re wearing underneath.
The late 1930s through the 50s are prime princess coat territory. The earliest examples aren’t quite as full-skirted, but they make up for it in glamour, with slim, drapey fits, longer hems, and dramatic details.
(photo on the bottom is courtesy of Wearing History)
They also score top marks in collar fanciness. I know vintage fur’s a touchy subject, but apparently there are ideals I’m willing to compromise for the sake of The Pretty.
Once WWII was out of the way, princess coats lost their sharp shoulders and underwent some serious skirt inflation–all part of the new postwar abundance. Under Forties rationing, smart tailoring took the place of fabric volume, but once the restrictions lifted, skirts ballooned on dresses and coats alike.
Nowadays, authentic vintage princess coats are tough to find and usually pricey–hence my lack of one, alas. Here’s a sampling of some of the best examples I’m currently yearning after, available around the Internet:
Tragically poorly-photographed, but it’s got a Persian lamb collar out of a Buck Rogers cartoon and some seriously epic back pleats.
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You’re not going to see a coat this good at this price point again anytime soon–frankly, she could get twice what she’s asking with ease. If this is still for sale a week from now, I’ll be shocked. The velvet detailing is fab, and it’s got a great shape (the dolman sleeves might fit a little weird on some people, but that’s a quibble.)
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This navy coat doesn’t have the drama of some, but it makes up for it with impeccable tailoring and would be the crowning touch on your Betty Parker cosplay. (What, you’re not planning a Pleasantville group costume for next year’s Dragoncon? Well, now’s your chance– we still need a Mr. Johnson and a couple of Mary Sue’s friends.)
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Possibly not technically a princess coat (I can’t tell what the bust seaming is like) but holy crap, it’s GOLD LAMÉ and HOODED. If you have $900 going spare and want to look like an Oscar statuette, now’s your chance.
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Really good early example–this is a classic (though tragically tiny) 30s coat. Celluloid buttons, y’all!
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I’m like 90% sure the seller has misdated this coat–no way that’s any later than the mid-50s, even with the weirdly long waist. (Important vintage-buying tip: sometimes the dealer screws up. I once tagged a coat with, in retrospect, a glaringly obvious early-40s collar as 60s, and I’m kind of shitty at retagging things in a timely fashion, so it sold before I corrected the error. Sorry, misinformed coat-purchaser!)
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Bringing some collar and sleeve A-game in coral.
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Here’s an interesting example of a princess coat that’s meant more for drama than warmth (and a seller who’s having some fun)– this is a look-fab-at-the-opera coat, with those exaggerated dolman sleeves and single-button closure.
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This one combines my love of princess coats with my love of capes, my love of soutache embroidery, and my love of rhinestones, resulting in basically the Voltron of midcentury outerwear. I had to Google “giant robot made of smaller robots” just now because I had forgotten what Voltron was called.
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Can you even stand it? I would wear this every day and twice on Sunday. Flawless, gorgeous, classy-as-hell shade of purple, and MY SIZE.
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Also, a cautionary tale: especially on the Internet, people will try to sell you things that are not princess coats by labeling them princess coats. ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES. Some things that are not princess coats, despite being labeled as such:
This is a dressing gown.
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This is a swing coat that has been deceptively belted. Do not be fooled! It does have really pretty trim, though.
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This is a trench coat.
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Do you see a nipped-in waist? Me neither. Still not a princess coat. Remember: nipped-in waist (with princess seams and a waist seam!) and a full, flared skirt to at least knee-length.
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Hold fast! Someday your princess coat will come.
Tags: fashion, holli michele, shopping, the internet, vintage
I <3 all these coats, even the ones that aren’t really princess coats, especially the red one with celluloid buttons. However, since I’m 5’8 with an athletic build (translation: broad shoulders), I’m doomed to disappointment with vintage clothing in general and coats in particular. *sobs quietly into keyboard*
More vintage articles from Holli, though! This is a delightful distraction on a dull-but-stressful Monday.
Can you sew? I ask because I am also super broad shouldered and I have had great luck with dresses from the 40’s (I just skip the steps for adding the padding, as my own body fills that space fine), and it’s easier to make alterations to adjust the fit. If not, I’d try and buy stuff that’s a little big and go and get everything tailored but the shoulders.
Hey, good ideas on the sizing and tailoring. I’m hopeless at sewing, except for buttons and pointe shoes – the latter being entirely useless now, as the last ballet class I took was 15 years ago and my daughter is not a dancer.
Gasp! I think I have one of these. It’s an old coat from my grandmother, and I’m not 100% sure, but it seems to have the requisite seams and shape.
Unfortunately, it’s a kind of drab brown tweed, so it’s not as cute as any of these. And my grandmother was teeny, so it buttons on me only under duress. But it’s still cool to know what it is now!
Oh man, I would love one of these! But I can’t imagine I could find a vintage one that fits (5′ 9″ and large-chested). Is there any company that makes similar coats now? They look so pretty and comfortable!
I always bemoaned the fact that since I don’t have much of a waist these never look quite right on me. I got a swing coat from Land’s End that only partly soothes the ache.
I would like to know this as well.
For new vintage-y styled dresses, I do shop at Bettie Page occasionally. http://www.bettiepageclothing.com/
I love eShakti for 50s-style dresses, and so far all the ones I’ve ordered have been machine-washable.
I got one a couple of years ago from Spiewak. At least, I think it counts. It has a very nipped in waist and then flares out into a skirt with some serious pleating at the back. They seem to have moved from awesome wool coats to less-awesome parkas and bomber jackets, but I found this one on ebay! Mine is green, not pink, and I love it.
Late to this party, but in a shameless plug for the company I used to work for, reVamp Vintage ( http://www.revampvintage.com ), I will say that you can get pretty much any vintage-y style coat (or article of clothing) you want made. It’s based in LA, they have ready-to-wear and made-to-measure options for everything and they specialize in 1910s-1950s fashion. If I had more moola, I would have a whole wardrobe of their stuff, and I swear I have drunk no vintage kool-aid when talking about that place.
Oh my god oh my god oh my gods. That purple coat! Go, now, sell some eggs, do something, get that coat if it’s in your size, Holli!
Okay, I initially parsed ‘sell some eggs’ as ‘raise backyard chickens and sell their eggs at the farmer’s market, presumably while wearing a cute gingham housedress.’ Then I figured out what you meant.
Ha! Cute gingham housedress is always necessary when selling chicken eggs at the farmer’s market!
I probably could have phrased that better, now that I look back on it. At the time I was just thinking over & over, “Don’t type “rob a bank”, don’t type “rob a bank if you have to” because someone somewhere will somehow see that and then you’re in trouble.”
Who will buy me that red coat with the celluloid buttons? IT’S RED AND JUST IN TIME FOR VALENTINE’S DAY!
I have a princess-style brown coat that I refer to as my “Princess Kate coat” because it looks like something she would wear if she were, you know, poor like me. Her outstanding taste in coats leads me to believe she is at home reading this and going “It is a nice day to buy some vintage coats, yes!”
Just don’t light up while you’re wearing it. Given the popularity of smoking in the princess coat era, I’m surprised that so many celluloid accessories are still intact.
I have an early 40s princess coat with celluloid buttons ($60! I am still proud of that bargain) and I irresponsibly smoke in it all the time!
I think because buttons are denser than say, film, the hazards are less. That’s what I tell myself at least.
I would never take off that purple coat, even though I live in California and have no real use for it.
I am STILL kicking myself for not buying myself a beautiful coat from Zara in 2006 when I was in Denmark. It was black and white, with an extra-large houndstooth pattern, and a shiny black belt and a wonderful full kicky skirt. Maybe it was a princess coat, I don’t know. But I loved it, and I didn’t buy it, and then it disappeared and I have been sad about it for eight years.
I feel like most people have a coat like that in their past. Or a pair of shoes. Me, it’s both. (Oddly, the coat was also from Zara – a short white trench that I tried on in the airport in Barcelona.)
okay, this is just weird–I *also* have a Coat That I Should’ve Bought (except I shouldn’t’ve because it was way too expensive & there was only one in stock & it was so tight on me that I never could’ve worn it over sweaters & it wasn’t warm enough to be useful in Chicago winters BUT STILL). & it was a black/white herringbone print with little ruffles at the cuffs & a zip-up front &–while not from Zara–was from some random boutique store in Barcelona. & this was in 2004.
apparently the Spanish coat game was on POINT in the early aughts.
I have Coats I Should Not Have Given Away. They are: the winter-white swing coat with black flared collar, cuffs, and pocket trim (which I bought new for FORTY BUCKS, and which I gave away while living in Chicago because white outerwear gets so grubby when you ride the subway daily) and the vintage Swiss (I think) military greatcoat I owned shortly after.
That I-think-Swiss coat was like the military version of the princess coat: big dramatic flared collar and deep wide cuffs, slim double-breasted torso, and a sweeping skirt (with a button panel in back which allowed one to button front-center to back-center to convert it to, essentially, a romper for wear in extreme cold or wind). I gave it away because A. it was navy, not the black which I vastly prefer and B. some previous owner had hacked off some length (still leaving it mid-calf on me at 5’10”) and I wasn’t up to hemming it tidily.
… and I just went looking for a replacement, but searching for Swiss military greatcoat took me with surprisingly speed down a weird collector/seller rabbithole where people are carefully avoiding words like “Nazi memorabilia” even though that’s clearly what everyone’s looking for. Um. Yikes.
Coats I Should Now Have Given Away! My emerald green velvety coat. My ancient leather jacket, even though the zip was fucked and both sleeves were ripped. The puffer jacket I had when I was four: it had roses on it and was navy blue and I ADORED it and I gave it away to Christian Aid in a fit of four-year-old conscience about the starving children in the Balkans and regretted it IMMEDIATELY.
Yeah, there’s a $30 emerald green velvet coat that I should’ve bought when I saw it. Fit like a dream, and $30 for emerald green velvet?! What was I thinking??? Fifteen or so years later and I still remember it ruefully.
Why oh WHY is there no magic sign or iPhone app that lights up in the store and says THIS IS PERFECT FOR YOU, BUY IT NOW, IN FACT, BUY AT LEAST TWO BECAUSE YOU’LL WEAR IT ALL THE TIME AND YOU’LL BE SAD WHEN IT WEARS OUT.
Or, you know, something pithier along the same lines.
Yes. I’ve been wishing for neon signs that say “THIS! THIS WILL BE GREAT ON YOU” popping out of racks when I enter a store since I was a teenager but a phone app (with alarm function) would be fine. I’m willing to compromise.
I want every coat and every matching hat!
Mmm, vintage coats! I was very lucky in high school that my girlfriend’s mother was an amazing Goodwill shopper and I was shorter and skinnier than everyone in her family, so on random occasions she would give me some fabulous thing she’d found that couldn’t fit anyone else.
One such thing was a 1930s(?) ankle length velvet coat, with a hood and a lining that feels absolutely great. (This is possibly my favorite part, because if the coat is appropriate at all, the dress almost certainly has no sleeves.) It’s definitely not a princess coat, which would be much more in keeping with my general style, but I can forgive it everything because it is perfect in its own way. I have had other items temporarily be my favorite article of clothing, but really it will always be this coat.
I have a cobalt blue princess coat that is not vintage (which is good, because plus-size vintage is impossible) but gets me compliments on a regular basis. And it swooshes when I walk! WOULD RECOMMEND.
I love a fur cuff! Especially if it has a fur collar to match.
Mmm. If I let myself indulge, I would have a closetful of vintage coats the way some people have closetfuls of shoes.
I would wear the gold one not gonna lie
Younger me woulda worn the gold one and spent the whole time wishing it were silver instead. Aw, younger me, you sure know how to [have/ruin] fun.
I bet you weren’t the first to Google “robot made of smaller robots”–in fact, I think I did the exact same thing a few months ago.
As for princess coats, some enterprising plus-size designer needs to start making some pronto. I will take five.
Hah – I came down here to comment on the “Voltron of midcentury outerwear”! This whole piece was awesome, but that made me LOL. My first childhood crush was on Voltron. Not one of the pilots, but the actual robot. I….. don’t know. I was a strange child.
Maybe you could try one of the Etsy shops that will make coats in custom sizes (like in the review at http://hourglassy.com/2014/12/off-the-rack-trying…. The prices aren’t going to be as good as a thrifted coat, but they seem to be in the same range as department store coats.
THANKS for featuring our 1930s fur trimmed coat! It is really one of my favorites…it just needs a home. 🙂 We also have a few more princess coats on our website (http://raleighvintage.com/collections/coats)…there’s a royal blue one there I think you’d like!
Oh my jesus, it’s my size. Can we, like, work out some kind of barter arrangement? I have some 40s knit dresses that need a good home…
They are all very pretty. I wonder why they haven’t come back into style?
When they were in style, fabric was expensive but skilled labour was cheap.
My mum was a seamstress (apprenticed at 13) and could make a custom dress or coat for the same price as a shop bought one.
Even in our working class neighbourhood, she had a lot of clients.
Today, skilled labour is expensive. It costs me $15 to have my pants shortened (and worth every penny!).
I was pricing having a suit made (for an Agent Carter cosplay) and the fabric, before lining was $120 and labour over $300. My old age pension doesn’t quite stretch that far.
Those coats , especially the New Look ones had acres of fabric in the skirts, and the cutting and stitching had to be precise.
Not to put down the hard work of those teenage Chinese machinists, but the expertise is not there.
I NEED THE FUSCHIA CAPE-Y ONE.
I adore all these coats, but I can never bring myself to buy anything I can’t squeeze 9 sweaters under when it gets really cold.
I want the entire outfit, hat to shoes, from the lady in picture #5, please.
Reason number 101 I need to learn to sew.
Oh my jesus, it's my size. Can we, like, work out some kind of barter arrangement? I have some 40s knit dresses that need a good home…
ooooooh, celluloid buttons. can they actually explode or is that a myth? I vaguely recall seeing an old Punch Cartoon with someone’s waistcoat bursting into flame, but I haven’t heard of any actual celluloid button mishaps. Attempts to google exploding celluloid buttons delivered me into the arms of the Ottawa Valley Button Club (http://tinyurl.com/lzdxm55) and their very nice brief introduction to the behavior of celluloid buttons, but I can’t get a clear answer on exploding.
I have been convinced forever that a princess coat would be my PERFECT COAT STYLE but alas, when my mother offered to make me a coat for my birthday, she took one look at the skirt fabric requirements and laughed me into a lovely (and very warm) red straight coat instead.
But oh, what could have been
OK Toasties, which of you wants to start a made-to-order princess coat company?
Someone DO ITTTTTTT
oh, LET ME TELL YOU about my grand and totally unachievable plans to Kickstarter a vintage repro company into existence. It turned out that the cost of getting the samples made in order to find out what actual production costs would be was such that I couldn’t justify the risk. Still really disappointed about that.
oh, LET ME TELL YOU about my grand and totally unachievable plans to Kickstarter a vintage repro company into existence. It turned out that the cost of getting the samples made in order to find out what actual production costs would be was such that I couldn't justify the risk. Still really disappointed about that.