Random query

[msmcknittington]

Dear list of friends,

Would a man's light overcoat for spring in the early Victorian era (1830s, 1840s) have been called a surtout?

My NaNo thanks you.

Much love,
Sarah

P.S. Additional random query for which my NaNo will not thank you: How do you think this plastron is attached? Thread loops and hooks? There doesn't appear to be a tie. My magenta silk faille taffeta thanks you.

Comments

[sbuchler.livejournal.com]

Are you sure the plastron is attached? There are a number of extant examples that are essentially cape-lets...


mmmmm, silk faille taffeta... I'm jelious! :-)

(don't know about the surtout; I've never heard the word before)

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

I never considered that it might not be attached. I guess I figured it would just be flapping around every time you walked.

As for the silk faille, Fashion Fabrics Club is the devil. I bought it last year for an 1850s ballgown (which was a complete horror, but I was proud of it at the time because I was working on a serious time crunch), and my project after the Natural Form gown is to improve it and make it convertible to day.

[textileowl.livejournal.com]

I've seen a couple of these in person at my college's Costume Collection and I have noticed that in a bunch of the styles where you might think they would flap around loosely, they have weights in the lining to prevent it.

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

Oh, interesting! How much weight? Like a coin or like a washer?

[textileowl.livejournal.com]

Usually about the size of a washer, I think it would depend on the fabric's own weight and then how air currents caught it.

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

I guess it's to the costuming air tunnel with me, then.

[irisheye.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about Victorian-era fashion, but you mean a surcoat, maybe?

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

No, a surcoat is a medieval thing. A surtout is a type of overcoat for men in the 18th and 19th centuries, based on military uniforms, but I'm having trouble discovering what exactly is a surtout and what isn't. Is it a winter coat? A spring coat? Both? What's it made out of? I've no idea; Google isn't revealing any secrets.

[irisheye.livejournal.com]

Hmm... it's probably not helping your search that "surtout" is also a French word meaning "especially"... so it's a pretty common word :P

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I google something like "surtout men's fashion 1840s" and I get some quote from a French fashion magazine that uses surtout, and absolutely nothing about coats. So frustrating!