The box coat originated in 18th and 19th century Europe as a heavy, double-breasted coat worn by horse-drawn coach drivers. Today, it is a broad term encompassing various coat styles with a fitted waist and shoulders and no belt. Women now wear them and they come in many colors and lightweight materials.
A box coat is a heavy garment that must be worn over the top of the wearer’s other clothing to provide warmth in cold weather. They became popular in 18th and 19th century Europe and were originally double-breasted and would go past the wearer’s knees, although these two traits are not always true for box coats today. They were also generally dark in color. What distinguishes a box coat from other heavy coats is the fitted waist and shoulders and wide lapels, and the absence of a belt. These features allow the wearer’s body shape to show through to a greater extent than many other coat styles.
The box coat gets its name from its original purpose, which was to provide warmth for horse-drawn coach drivers. These trainers would sit at the front of the trainer in what was called the “box”, hence the coat’s name. Since they sat at the front of the coach, the drivers would be exposed to the weather and therefore would need a warm garment to protect them during the cold European winters. Many of the early boxer coats also had shoulder layers that would provide extra warmth on particularly cold nights.
In the early 20th century, the advent of motor vehicles made the coachman obsolete, but the box coat endured. After the first part of the century, very few box coats still featured layers, and the term gradually came to encompass a broader range of different coat styles. Today, it’s common to find coats that fall above the knee, and many of them are no longer double-breasted. The only enduring traits that are necessary for something to fall under the term “coat” are a fitted waist and shoulders and the lack of a belt.
Today’s broad definition of the box coat has resulted in such a variety of designs that almost every major winter clothing line will involve some type of box coat. While men were originally the almost exclusive wearers of box coats, it’s now just as common to find women wearing them, and they’re available in any number of colors, from the original dark grays and blacks to the more contemporary bright yellows and pinks. . Many box coats are now quite lightweight compared to the original coats, some are even known as box jackets, a term that would have been an oxymoron when the garment first became popular.
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