Norfolk Jacket Definition | Apparel Search

A Norfolk jacket is a loose, belted, single-breasted jacket with box pleats on the back, and sometimes the front, now made with a belt or half-belt. The style was long popular for boys' jackets and suits, and is still used in some, primarily military and police, uniforms. It was originally designed as a shooting coat that did not bind when the elbow was raised to fire. This page explains how the pleats and belt do that work, the jacket's naming, and its spread from the shooting field.

A Norfolk jacket is a loose, belted, single-breasted jacket with box pleats on the back (and sometimes front), now with a belt or half-belt. The style was long popular for boys' jackets and suits, and is still used in some (primarily military and police) uniforms. It was originally designed as a shooting coat that did not bind when the elbow was raised to fire. It was named either for the Duke of Norfolk or for the county of Norfolk and was made fashionable after the 1860s in the sporting circle of the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII.

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The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nightwear). 1/5/06

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Built for the Shooting Field

Every feature of the Norfolk jacket is field equipment translated into tailoring. A shooting coat must let its wearer mount a gun quickly and swing it across the body, movements that pull an ordinary fitted jacket tight across the back and shoulders. The Norfolk jacket answers with box pleats running vertically at the back, and often the front, which open like bellows when the arms rise and fold flat when they fall. The loose body is controlled by a belt of the same cloth, so the jacket stays closed against weather without buttons straining, and large bellows pockets hold cartridges. The cloth was tweed, thornproof and quiet, in the greens and browns of the field.

From the field the style spread in two directions. Fashion took it up after the 1860s in the sporting circle of the Prince of Wales, and the Norfolk suit, jacket with matching knickerbockers or trousers, became standard country wear. Boys' clothing took it up even more durably: the Norfolk jacket was the classic schoolboy and holiday jacket for decades, in cheaper cloths but with the pleats and belt kept as the style's signature. Uniformed services kept a version too, where the pleated, belted jacket reads as smart but allows movement, the same reason it was designed. Modern tweed jackets with pleats and half-belts are its direct descendants.

Common Questions

What is a Norfolk jacket?

A Norfolk jacket is a loose, belted, single-breasted jacket with box pleats on the back and sometimes on the front. It was designed as a shooting coat and is still used in some military and police uniforms.

Why does a Norfolk jacket have pleats and a belt?

The box pleats let the jacket expand across the shoulders and back when the arms are raised to fire a gun, while the belt holds the loose body in place. The design goal was a coat that did not bind when the elbow was raised.

Where does the name Norfolk jacket come from?

The jacket was named either for the Duke of Norfolk or for the county of Norfolk. It was made fashionable after the 1860s in the sporting circle of the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII.

Norfolk Jacket