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January 13, 2013 · 4:49 pm

The Ultimate Princes Coat – Historical Pieces

For my last post, I had searched far and wide to locate the perfect quintessential princess coat with fur trim all around, but I had a lot of trouble finding one. I figured it was because they had recently been in high demand for Christmas and winter, but it is true that they are somewhat rare as well. I forgot, though, to look at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection, silly me! I stumbled upon this piece of theirs on Pinterest, and thought I would post it here so that we could all revel in it’s beauty. It is perhaps unwearable but still worth adoring!

Circa 1968, i.e. approaching the decade of the princess coat and was designed by Shannon Rodgers.

They also have a few other princess coats in their collection that are lot of fun to look at as well. Voila:

Circa 1955, Traina-Norell

Circa 1970, George Caplan

Circa 1970, Norman Norell

Circa 1967, Oscar de la Renta

Circa 1970, Arnold Scaasi

Circa 1972

Circa 1970s, Yves Saint Laurent

Circa 1968-69

The Princess Coat

We just got 43 centimeters of glorious fluffy snow here in Montreal. This in itself is a vintage experience and reminds me of the snowfalls we used to get around here back when I was a kid and of those my parents described playing in when they were young too. This kind of scenery puts me in the mood to talk about vintage winter fashion and the first thing that comes to mind is the princess coat!

Princess coat? What is a princess coat you ask? Well, you won’t find a definition of such a thing anywhere, but in the vintage scene, it is well understood. The first characteristic that defines a princess coat is that it is flared at the waist. Next is fur trim; this can come in many variations with the most quintessential pieces having trim along all the edges of the coat. They come most commonly in wool, leather, suede or shearling with fur of various kinds. The most glorious pieces are of course the ones from the 40s to 70s. Here are some available on Etsy:

Unadorned:

Fur trimmed:

There are many shearling princess coats available from the 1970s, the decade that really embraced this style. My favourites are the little short ones with fur trim all around but there are several variations and they are all fashionable and cozy!

Another popular version is the Russian princess coat. These are more a-line in cut and are double breasted like a pea coat or some variation on that theme. They usually have fur trim on the collar and/or cuffs. The red and black versions of these are truly classic Russian style, but all of these coats are amazing and are great timeless investments. Keep in mind too that you could add trim yourself to a coat that you already have. Faux fur is available in any fabric store, and you can always find real fur cuffs & collars in vintage shops.