Historical alternatives to a prince charlie jacket in the titanic / ragtime era

[OC Richard]

Thanks OC Richard. That's great to know.

The picture is really helpful. I'd really love to have one of those jackets.

Any idea how early these jackets come about? I'm wondering if they would work for an 1860's event this summer?

Thanks,

Yes I've posted quite a bit about that style of jacket, here at XMarks over the years.

One thing is what it was called... it seemed to simply be called a "doublet". In any case, this jacket was the most common formal jacket from the 1860s up until a host of new formal jacket styles swept in in the post-WWI era such as the Prince Charlie Coatee (early on often called simply "the coatee"), the Montrose Doublet, the Kenmore Doublet, etc etc. By the 1930s this traditional Doublet was being regarded as oldfashioned and suitable for older gentlemen. It evolved into the so-called "Regulation Doublet" which was still fairly common in the 1960s. (The difference between the traditional Doublet and the mid-20th century Regulation Doublet is the collar, the Regulation Doublet having a Prince Charlie style collar and lapels.)

The Highlanders of Scotland, a collection of 56 kilted portraits from the 1860s, shows many examples and variants of this jacket, demonstrating how widespread it was at that time.

Here are some vintage photos clearly showing that style of Doublet. I have dozens, perhaps hundreds, more, many of which can be seen in the "vintage photos" forum here.

An early example, in the 1860s



in 1896



and more



This photo shows the cut of the jacket exceptionally well but is odd in that sergeant stripes have been sewn onto this solidly civilian style of jacket



I have asked on this forum if anyone makes that traditional Doublet, and though several people have claimed yes, when I asked for people to post actual photos of such, none were forthcoming.