Clothing Definitions — definitions of garments and clothing terms from Apparel Search
A tailcoat, sometimes called a swallow-tail coat, is the coat traditionally worn by men for white tie dress, for very formal evening occasions. A tailcoat is waist length in the front and sides and has two long tails reaching to the knees in back, sometimes with a pocket on the inside meant to hold gloves. It is a modification of the older frock coat: the frock coat goes down to the knees all the way around, the morning coat's lower edge slants diagonally, and the tailcoat is cut away more dramatically across. The tailcoat traditionally has satin facings on the lapels, is double-breasted, and meets but does not fasten in front.
A tailcoat is waist length in the front and sides, and has two long tails reaching to the knees in back. (Sometimes with a pocket on the inside meant to hold gloves). In this respect the tailcoat is a modification of the older frock coat: the frock coat goes down to the knees all the way around, and lower edge of its other descendant, the morning coat or cutaway, slants diagonally from the waist in front to the knees in back, the tailcoat is cut away more dramatically across.
The tailcoat traditionally also has satin facings on the lapels, is double breasted, and meets but does not fasten in the front. (There are two rows of buttons, all non-functional.)
It is normally worn with a white wing-collar dress shirt with single cuffs fastened with cufflinks, a matching white bowtie and waistcoat, black trousers, and black patent leather shoes with leggings.
Although regarded as formal wear today, like all such "formal wear" it is based upon standard fashions of earlier times. Tailcoats, sometimes called a "claw-hammer",would be standard day-to-day wear in the 1830's to 1850's. A period photo of President James Buchanan and his cabinet shows a group of men all wearing this type of garment.
| The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/tailcoat). 6/4/07 |
The tailcoat's shape began as a practical alteration: a coat cut away in front lets a rider sit a horse without the skirts bunching, and lets a dancer or a gentleman at a formal occasion move and sit with the front clear while the back keeps the long, formal line. Fashion froze the alteration into a dress code. By the time the frock coat left everyday wear, the tailcoat had become the fixed evening form, its details standardized: the horizontal cut across the waist, the two tails, the satin-faced lapels, the decorative buttons, and the glove pocket inside a tail that tailors still cut today.
White tie survives at state occasions, formal balls, some orchestral and academic ceremonies, and in the dress of conductors, waiters at the most formal establishments and grooms by choice. Because the outfit is a complete system, shirt studs, cufflinks, waistcoat, bow tie of the same white marcella cotton, patent shoes, the tailcoat is rarely bought casually; it is hired, inherited, or made by a tailor for someone with a recurring formal calendar. Its definition matters beyond its numbers: tailcoat is the reference point that defines the top of the formal scale, the standard against which black tie is, by design, the relaxed alternative.
A tailcoat is worn for white tie dress, the most formal category of evening occasion. It is regarded as formal wear today, and white tie sits above black tie, the tuxedo, in the formality order.
A tailcoat is normally worn with a white wing-collar dress shirt with single cuffs fastened with cufflinks, a matching white bow tie and waistcoat, black trousers, and black patent leather shoes. The coat itself has satin facings, is double-breasted, and meets in front without fastening; its two rows of buttons are non-functional.
All three descend from the same line. The frock coat reaches the knees all the way around. The morning coat, or cutaway, slants diagonally from the waist in front to the knees in back. The tailcoat is cut away most dramatically: waist length in front and at the sides, with two long tails to the knees behind.