The Car Coat

Few garments are as specific to their moment as the car coat. It exists because of one change in daily life: in the 1950s, especially in the United States, millions of families moved to the suburbs and started driving everywhere.

A long coat is awkward in a car. It bunches under you when you sit, wrinkles, and gets caught in the door. The car coat solved that simply by being short - usually ending at the hip or upper thigh - so it didn't get in the way when the wearer sat behind the wheel. It was loose enough to move comfortably while driving, often with raglan sleeves, and it was designed as casual wear rather than formal outerwear. Typical details included toggle or big button fastenings, patch pockets, hoods, quilted or plaid-flannel linings, and collars of corduroy or sheepskin. Fabrics ranged from wool tweed and melton to corduroy, suede, poplin, and new synthetic piles.

Both men and women wore car coats, and for women they filled a new gap in the wardrobe. The postwar suburban woman spent a lot of time driving - to the shops, to school, to activities - and needed something warm, easy, and practical that could go over casual clothes like capri pants, pedal pushers, or a skirt and sweater. A long, dressy coat like the swing coat was still worn for town and formal occasions, but the car coat was the everyday option. Ready-to-wear manufacturers produced them in huge numbers, which fits the growth of ready-to-wear in the decade.

I find the car coat a great example of how technology reshapes clothing. Just as the bicycle helped create pedal pushers and rail travel popularised travelling coats, the car made a whole new type of coat. It's also part of the story of car culture, which runs through so much of 1950s life. And the idea never really went away: today's short, casual jackets and parkas are, in a sense, the car coat's descendants.