I understand that modern outer layers are more functional. A leather jacket, for example, can be dressed up or down so as to be worn in a variety of situations. It is also better at keeping you warm.
However, I think capes/cloaks are more aesthetically pleasing garments. It also feels good to have the fabric flowing around you as you walk. But what do you think?
The actual reason that we don’t is pretty much because of the invention of sewing machines. Once sewing machines were widespread, making coats became sooo much cheaper than they had been. Coats need a lot of tightly made seams which took time and so made coats very expensive. With sewing machines, making these seams was vastly quicker and more reliable.
Coats win over cloaks in so many ways because you can do things with your arms without exposing them or your torso to the rain and cold: impossible with a cloak.
Capes were the short versions - and intended to cover the shoulder and back without seams that might let the rain in, but with the new machine made seams, they were not needed either.
The really big change was when it became affordable to outfit armies with coats instead of cloaks or capes. At that point all the caché and prestige that was associated with military rank disappeared from cloaks and capes and they were suddenly neither useful not fashionable.
Nowadays, of course, they are no longer what your unfashionable dad would have worn: they are quite old enough to have regained a certain style.
Awesome comment. Today I learned something.
I know someone who wears a cloak cape. They explained this to me how practical it was back 300 years ago that you could wear your nightly blanket.
I asked them if that was a situation they ran into often while living in Brooklyn. Having to bed down for the night with your cloak.
Or just living in New York where it’s cold in the winter. It’s a blanket you wear over your coat. You’re not supposed to wear it as your only piece of outer clothing.
The other big reason is that the world is cleaner. Capes and cloaks also protect the whole body from mud/dust and can be easily removed. Riding a horse or walking on dirt roads is a lot dirtier than riding in cars or walking on a sidewalk
The original type of coat that would have been worn when riding was the Great Coat - which did cover the whole body, down to the ankles (and included the front of the body much better than a cloak). Those would have been worn by military officers, particularly.
Those were fine for riding, but then if you were off your horse and end up in the newly developed trench warfare - starting from around the US civil war onwards - you ended up wading through mud which got caked to the coat. So then they started cutting the coats shorter and they became Trench Coats.
I WOULD LIKE TO SUBSCRIBE TO COAT AND CAPE FACTS
you ended up wading through mud
Horse shit. In cities, you waded through horse shit.
As someone who has done extensive reenactment in period dress, sometimes in towns dedicated to realism that banned cars and relied on horses for travel, you wouldn’t believe how terrible even a dozen carriages and a few dozen private horses can be to your skirts/trousers and shoes. Especially when it rains.
People sometimes make light of women in the past who changed their outer clothes two or three times a day, but if you were in town, your attire would be absolutely foul after a few hours in the same outer skirt. A long cloak helped immensely to keep your skirts or trousers from soaking up horse sewage.
Once cars took over, that stopped being a problem, cloaks weren’t as desirable as they obscured fashion, and coats became shorter and more for protection from the weather than from horse shit.
There was a bit of military influence, but that was more about fashion than functional influence.
e: clarification
Vogue tells a different history of the trench coat, claiming its origins are actually raincoats for active well-to-do British gentlemen:
https://www.vogue.fr/fashion/article/vogue-encyclopaedia-the-history-of-the-trench-coat
The “British Warm” was the intermediary as I understand it: a shorter greatcoat favoured by Britsh officers in WW1. The Trenchcoat itself was modeled to fit over, accompany or replace this.
Dude is dripped out
So are my panties
Nice…
While they were already in decline, the trend of Capes an Cloaks really dropped sharply in the 1950’s. With improving technology in the transportation sector and the rising prevalence of jet engines, the risk of getting sucked into an air intake or caught in some piece of machinery was just too great. Punctuated by a series of gruesome incidents , the new rule in fashion was set. No Capes.
Edna, is that you?
I feel like capes went out of style around the industrial revolution for the very reasons outlined in The Incredibles by Edna as to why she doesn’t design costumes with capes.
Definitely wouldn’t want my cape to get caught in a car or train door.
I came here to this topic looking for this reference. /applaud
“It is also better at keeping you warm”
Not even remotely accurate. I actually used to have a full size woollen cloak, and it is unbelievable how good they are at keeping out the elements. I have literally slept in the middle of a forest, in only jeans, a t-shirt, and that cloak, and I was toasty warm. I’ve sheltered through torrential downpours and snow storms in it. There is basically nothing as warm as a proper wool cloak.
This is why:
What comic is this from?
Watchmen
Who says we don’t? I wore one out tonight.
That looks like a hooded jacket…
M8! You just payed $160 for a hoodie without a zipper!
Edit: it does look pretty sick though.
Those are all jackets, 100%. Doesn’t matter what the seller calls them, those are clearly jackets because sleeves.
You seem like an absolutely charming and fun person to spend time around.
Very much so, thanks for noticing though: It’s always lovely to hear.
Cool jacket by the way.
Incognito Daft Punk
deleted by creator
We invented sleeves.
Seinfeld has this covered:
I use my blanket as a cloak in the winter
I use my blanket as a cloak all the time lol
You are cloakly much more than me
100% of the cloaks and capes I’ve seen IRL have been as part of either someone’s weird cosplay or some neckbeard/weeb shit. I think that, a bit like the fedora, they’re just sorta ruined now due to the people who wear them.
It’s ackshully called a trilby
Alternately, maybe cool people should start wearing them and then they could get rid of the stigma.
They’ve just morphed. A poncho is basically a cloak that doesn’t open. A long dress coat is basically a cloak with formal buttons.
A long dress coat is basically a cloak with formal buttons.
Also sleeves, which are the main difference anyway
I think this is why the cloak died. Sleeves are just so useful.
They can kind of get in the way though. Cloaks could give your arms more freedom of movement if you really need it. I could see a resurgence in military and/or trade uses.
either someone’s weird cosplay
Why “weird”?
I wear a Fedora sometimes - AC can get cold and my hair isn’t as thick as it used to be… it just seems easier than converting to Judaism to be able to wear a Yamaka:-P.
Surely you know there are other options than just “fedora” or “yarmulke.”
Cowboy hat? :-P
But I am open to suggestions if you have any…
Here’s a few that I think are probably more fashionable than a fedora:
Baseball cap, pork pie hat, knit hat (e.g. skull cap, watch cap, beanie), docker cap, scally cap, newsboy hat, ivy cap, ascot, bucket hat.
That’s a great list.
And almost every one of those is likely to work better for OP, work with more outfits, etc, and have less of a stigma than a fedora.
Just a quick note that in the USA, unless there is a sports logo on it, cap = MAGA hat, sorry, dems the rules.
But Breaking Bad hat, now that is a damn fine argument that you made there!? :-P
AC can get cold and my hair isn’t as thick as it used to be… it just seems easier than converting to Judaism to be able to wear a Yamaka:-P.
I pity Americans who don’t just wear a touque (or as you might call it, a beanie). Honestly it’s the perfect hat for cold weather. Here in Canada, basically everyone wears one for the half of the year where it’s cold enough to warrant a hat. Some people are fancy and wear an Ushanka hat or a Nordic hat in the winter, but 99% just wear a touque.
I’ve lived all over America and people wear beanies
Indeed I wear a beanie the whole winter, whenever I can get away with it.:-D But in 100 degree weather, it wouldn’t work quite as well…:-P.
Yeah I’d imagine if it’s so hot that water is boiling you probably can’t wear a hat comfortably
Do you mean a toboggan?
What? A toboggan is a sled. We’re talking about hats.
It’s a knit hat.
Just looked it up. Apparently that’s what southerners call a touque. Y’all’re weird.
No googling or anything, huh? Just throwing “yamaka” out there and hoping it was right?
Try it - you might be surprised? :-P
Wear a beret.
If necessary, affect a French accent.
Or throw people off by affecting a Texas Twang or Southern Drawl.
Howdy ya’all, faire bon accueil, I hope you are living in high cotton today! :-P
Can’t really pull off a fedora (or similar) without a suit that matches, otherwise, yeah, you just look like a neckbeard or maybe a Michael Jackson cosplayer. If you aren’t dressing in formal attire, consider a baseball cap, beanie, hood, cabbie hat, or even a stetson if it’s up your alley.
The issue is it has to fit the overall outfit. A fedora can still look really good if you have a well tailored suit to match it, while most of the things that look good with a cloak are, frankly, uncomfortable to wear everyday compared to modern clothing. This is why it’s essentially only done for cosplay and larping nowadays, looking like that is fun every now and then but not so fun that you’d want to go about daily life dressed that way.
Wear whatever you want.
People mostly used to wear cloaks to keep the elements off of them.
Lots of mud and dirt from horseback riding back then–also rain.
We’re indoors a lot more now. Most of us don’t work outside and our transportation, mainly automobiles, are protected from the elements.
As the function became irrelevant, so did the clothing choice.
Yeah, the function for sure; along with overcoats and any outermost layer. Chivalry maintained men walked on the curb side bc horse shit and piss flowed freely in the gutters and the coat prevented splash. Same for commuter trains and subways. Nasty shit all over before electric.
A lot of superstition like bad luck putting your hat on the bed came from this. It was dirty, bring it home and you got sick from it. Logical superstition.
I’ll catch myself feeling superstitious, check myself with science, then realize it’s gross and get my nasty ass outside hat off my bed.
because we have become indescriptibly cringe
