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?
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.
First we’d need to ask what could qualify cloak or cape provide for the modern man that jackets and coats don’t already do while giving the wearer free movement of their arms?
The cape’s association with wealth and nobility is also hurt by the fact that the upperclasses these days are more interested in appropriating the style of lower class people (I.e. pre-distressed jeans) to try and appear as more down to earth.
The pre-distressed jeans are such an irritating trend to me. I’d rather see apparel get more durable, rather than making it so that it’s nearly worn out already. For a while there was a trend of making selvedge-edge jeans with 14oz raw denim that you had to spend a month or more breaking in; I’d like to see that trend come back, since those jeans lasted for years of daily use (just, don’t machine wash them!), and you got wear patterns specific to the individual that owns them.
The pre-distressed image: I want my clothes to look like I work without personally doing any work.
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Cloaks can have pockets! Everything should have pockets!
My pants have pockets in the pockets. Not even bullshitting for the meme.
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If “fob watch” means car keys and earbuds, then most definitely!
^I know what a fob watch is, guys^
It’s not the fifth pocket. These don’t actually have that, they are cargo pants.
There’s a pocket at the bottom of the right hand front pocket. One on the inside of the pants on the left hand pocket for hiding things.
There’s a couple other ones, but I don’t use them so much so I forget where they are. There’s 17 pockets on these pants.
This is why:
What comic is this from?
Watchmen
Women can get away with it. My coworker has a beautiful full-length, wool winter cape she wears just for every-day. I bet men could, too, with a suit on a formal occasion.
Yep, I have shorter ones for more casual outfits and full length for dressy events. They never seem “costumey” when they go with the overall look. I’m a woman in a metro area though.
I bet men could, too, with a suit on a formal occasion.
I disagree. I think some men could pull this off, but it would mostly come across as cartoony in most circumstances. Even 3-piece suits are seen as too formal/old-fashioned by people.
Where I could see cloaks looking fashionable and natural is in milsurp/gorpcore inspired outfits. Something like This cloak is pretty damn interesting and would look just fine On this outfit Or this one
Am I that out of touch with fashion lmao.
How are those words real?
Military surplus
Gorp is a hiker snack. So it just means hiker core.
I’m in an urban center where you still see a fair amount of suits downtown during business hours. Honestly, capes or cloaks with the outfits you linked I would just assume were blankets and I’d expect to be asked for change…I mean, I see that already, every day. It’s an “interesting” look alright.
DERELICTE
I have a wool plaid cape I got from a woman’s estate sale but it isn’t necessarily gendered, though as a man I haven’t been brave enough to wear it outside of the house yet except to a Burns supper where I got a lot of compliments. My coworkers are used to seeing me wear it on video throughout winter
Someone has to start wearing them to bring the trend back. Go for it OP!
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.
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.
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 can’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.
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What? A toboggan is a sled. We’re talking about hats.
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Just looked it up. Apparently that’s what southerners call a touque. Y’all are weird.
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
Hehehe, Oh Canada… :-) Don’t you know that you are using the
correct“wrong” temperature system - the only sensible one is based on how many pinkies were on the toe of the king’s son’s aunt’s cousin’s horse 200 years ago. I am sure you will agree with me that nothing else makes close to that degree of common sense - on THAT much at least we are SURE to agree! 🙃Oh god you sound like you wear a fedora.
No googling or anything, huh? Just throwing “yamaka” out there and hoping it was right?
Try it - you might be surprised? :-P
But since you’re a lemmy user you probably fall into that bracket anyway
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.
Wear a beret.
If necessary, affect a French accent.
Or throw people off by affecting a Texas Twang or Southern Drawl.
Wear a beret, speak in a low monotone voice, grow a big walrus-like moustache.
Find a red haired side kick/partner and go blow stuff up for 15 years!!
Howdy ya’all, faire bon accueil, I hope you are living in high cotton today! :-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…
Just out of curiosity because I see signs for it all the time, we went to Boot City yesterday.
The first thing you see when you go through the door as the overpowering smell of leather hits you is a massive row of cowboy hats that just keeps going and going.
It was not a pleasant experience overall. This was amusing, however:
I was hearing Jeff Foxworthy in my head. “If your living room furniture is made of cow horns…”
Holy cow! Oh uh… no, I mean, I guess literally!? :-P
Holey cow. It’s the only way they could get the rivets through the leather and horn.
You know what I’m talking about!!
Flat cap
In addition to the usual ubiquitous collection of random baseball caps, I also have a top hat.
I figure if I’m going to be lumped in with somebody, I’d rather it be the steampunkers than the neckbeards.
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
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”?
Because of the person inside it.
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.
It’s ackshully called a trilby
LOL! I’m actually in the market for a cloak. Been prowling the 2nd hand stores
I think there are more things now for them to get caught on or in. :( Probably more hassle than they are worth.
Full length coats are to cloaks as snuggies are to blankets. They cover the same area, but can sit tighter with easier use of arms.
Here are the reasons why we don’t wear capes anymore: https://youtu.be/1z_GF0KAAkg?si=pTHo6_ssordr_onn
Cars (and seatbelts) are the biggest reason I see. Cloaks:
- get caught in the door,
- take up a lot of space,
- get tangled in seatbelts,
- limit seatbelt effectiveness by padding the wearer with the excess cloth
They’re great for pedestrians but not so much for motorists, cyclists, and motorcyclists.
I wear a poncho occasionally and it’s a pain for exactly these reasons.
Yeah, as one of the apparent neckbeards/weebs mentioned elsewhere in this thread I’m 100% speaking from experience there.
I’m thinking I may acquire a nice ruana for when I’m driving…
I think this picture pretty much answers the question for you.
Because of judgemental folk like you? Most likely.
It’s sadly true. There are certain styles which simply don’t survive in the presence of judgment.
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.
I would like to subscribe to coat and cape facts
Also, Batman.
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.
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.
I WOULD LIKE TO SUBSCRIBE TO COAT AND CAPE FACTS
For a military officers that are practically nobility would have more and different clothing options than the average citizen.
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
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.
Awesome comment. Today I learned something.
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