The frock coat, popular during the Victorian and Edwardian periods, has a renewed interest since Johnny Depp wears this style of coat as The Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland 2010 movie.

It is a knee-length, fitted style, with long sleeves. A characteristic of the frock coat is that it is fitted closer to the chest until about the waist, where it becomes narrower at the waist but then flares out into a skirt style, although it ends in a straight cut nearer to the knees.

The frock coat may be either single-breasted or double-breasted. The double-breasted style is more common.

The back of the coat has a vent (with a pleat on both sides of the vent). Some styles of frock coats have a seam at the waist. Also, at the waist, two buttons are placed, for decoration, just above the top of the vent. An interesting note about these two buttons, is that they are traditionally placed so that the distance between the two buttons measures four inches between (and this button placement distance is adhered to, no matter what the size of the coat is).

The earliest frock coats made were completely sewn by hand, since that was the only option at the time. Sewing machines were not mass produced until around the late 1800′s so even after the invention of the sewing machine, it was not common to have one in most homes during the mid to late 1800′s. Meanwhile, all sewing to make a garment was still completely done by hand, most often by tailors who would have taken the measurements of the wearer, in order to create a good fit.

The more common colors used for making the coats were dark and plain colors in wool or wool/cotton blend fabrics. Generally, the coat would be lined with a fine fabric. It was common for the collar to be made with velvet fabric.

Frock coat styles are also known as wild west or gambler’s coats and some are called the Price Albert Frock Coat. The Prince Albert style has the full skirt in a knee-length. In Victorian era society, until around the year 1920, these semi-formal suit coats were worn as daily wear by those who were more well-to-do. Therefore, another name for the frock coat is the Gentlemen’s Coat.

Around the year 1750, the frock coat style was boxy, with full skirts below the waist, using pleats to accomodate for ease of movement. The top was straight and the buttons down the front reached all the way to the hip.

The exact style of the frock coat went through some changes over the years. Around the year 1770, the style became more fitted in the area of the back, more narrow than previously. It had buttons down the front but sometimes these were mainly just for looks and not used for closing the coat front, as the style had become more fitted and the two sides of the front would now barely meet to use the buttons for closure.

Frock coats have come back into fashion and are sometimes worn for formal wear, such as for weddings.

Read practical things to know about the topic of wedding favours to make – please make sure to read the page. The time has come when proper info is really only one click away, use this opportunity.