What is a car coat? From history to recommendations by genre.

If you like fashion, you have probably heard of a “car coat” at least once. However, there are many people who do not know what kind of outerwear it actually is… aren’t there? This time, we focus on “car coats” and introduce the history and recommended items by genre!

What is a Car Coat?

Car coats are a type of outerwear that originated in the early 1900s. At that time, most cars were open-top, so it was developed to protect them from cold and dirt. It was a kind of overcoat that could be worn by both men and women, but at the time, it was also a status symbol, indicating that “wearing a car coat = owning a car,” and was especially popular among men.

Find a Car Coat

Today, the coat is more like a jacket with a shorter length than a coat, but in fact, the design has been modified with the changing times. The classic coat was almost knee-length, as seen in Burberry’s famous “Camden” coat, but as more cars were equipped with roofs and heaters, the design was changed to be shorter and lighter to make it easier to drive. Incidentally, there is a theory that it was influenced by the lack of sufficient leather after World War II and the jeep coats that were popular among drivers. Various materials such as cotton, wool, and leather are used for the coat, and since they are made according to each season, they are popular not only in the fall and winter but also as spring coats in early spring.

Find Burberry’s famous car coat “Camden”.

Many people may think, “Isn’t a thigh-length car coat a stainless steel coat?” It is not too much to say that they are almost synonymous. The reason is that “stainless coat” is a Japanese word, and overseas it is called “car coat,” “raincoat,” or “spring coat” without a proper noun. It is important to keep in mind that many brands, such as Burberry, release stainless coats under the name of “car coats.

Car coats became a fashion item in the late 1990’s!

It was in the late 1990s that the car coat, a favorite among drivers, attracted attention as a fashion item. The first time Oasis won the Best British Video Award at the Brit Awards, a music festival held annually in the United Kingdom, was in 1996, when vocalist Liam Gallagher wore a sheepskin car coat.

It also gained attention when Jon Hamm, who plays the main character Don Draper, wore it in the popular American TV drama ” Mad Men,” which aired between 2007 and 2015. The retro mood, in the good sense of the word, that the car coat exudes is the reason for its popularity.