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Riding coat

Riding coat

  • Place of origin:

    Great Britain (made)

  • Date:

    1750-1759 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Unknown

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Worsted, lined with linen and silk

  • Museum number:

    T.197-1984

  • Gallery location:

    In Storage

Women’s riding outfits, known as ‘riding habits’, of the 18th century adapted elements of men’s dress. This jacket of the 1750s is styled after a man’s coat, although it has been modified with a waist seam to fit over stays and a wide petticoat. Another masculine element is the mariner’s cuff, with a scalloped flap running parallel to the length of the sleeve. It was a style first seen on the coats of naval officers, although their uniform was not officially defined until 1748. The mariner’s cuff became a fashionable feature of civilian coats in the 1750s and soon began to appear on women’s riding habits.

Physical description

Women’s riding coat of brown worsted in a twill weave and lined with yellow linen and silk.

Hip length. The fronts are shaped to the figure and have a slanting dart at the bust. There are slanting front waist seams and the skirts are cut on the cross with gored sides interlined and pleated, and caught at the back with a mock button fastening at the hem. There is another button at the side waist. The back is cut in two pieces and the centre seam becomes a vent at the waist. The sleeves, which are curved to the shape of the arm, are cut in two pieces and extra fullness is gathered into the shoulder which is top stitched. The fronts and the backs of the sleeves do not match. The fronts are cut on the warp of the fabric and the backs on the weft and pieced above the wrist. The cuffs have a lengthwise scalloped slit fastening with three buttons à la mariniére. The pockets have scalloped flaps also fastening with three buttons. The coat fastens from neck to waist. All the buttons are of beige silk wound over a wooden core and all the button soles are stitched in golden brown silk.

Place of Origin

Great Britain (made)

Date

1750-1759 (made)

Artist/maker

Unknown

Materials and Techniques

Worsted, lined with linen and silk

Descriptive line

Women’s riding coat of worsted and lined with linen and silk, British, 1750-1759

Materials

Worsted; Linen; Silk

Techniques

Weaving

Categories

Fashion; Women's clothes; Sport; Europeana Fashion Project

Collection

Textiles and Fashion Collection

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