1730
- Stephanie Smart
- 13 hours ago
- 3 min read
In December 2025, as part of my research for Weaving Silk Stories - the collection of paper and thread garments being made in association with Historic Royal Palaces, inspired by the history of silk in Britain - I went to V&A East for the first time, for a research visit. I had arranged to see three 1730's-'40's era coats, plus an accompanying waistcoat and two accompanying pairs of breeches.
I had already made a naval frockcoat inspired by those from the 1830's but I wanted to be sure I understood the tails in particular on coats from 100 years earlier. They seemed to point up and back, reminiscent of a preening male bird during the mating season. I wanted to see for myself if they had anything added inside to stiffen them.
But it seemed, in the case of the first coat we saw anyway, that it was all about the amount and shape of the folds, plus the cutting and stitching used. There were extra (purely decorative) buttons inside the folds that would be revealed presumably when the gentleman wearing the coat walked and heavily embroidered button holes down one front edge.
This piece doesn't have the most delicate or ornate embroidery, compared to some I have seen documented but the gold trim is used to effect and this V shape at the back appears to be a regular coat/frockcoat feature into the 1800's. Those tartan legs belong to my friend, another Stephanie, another paper artist. She stood beside the coat when it was placed on a mannequin so I could guage how long it was. She was just the right height.
Here you can see a button up close. Isn't it lovely! Even a simple cross hatch of thread when that thread is gilt, looks gorgeous.
We measured various parts of the coat using a hands breadth, so that when I got home I could see how wide, the cuffs etc should be on the one I was making.
Using the link at the end of this post to cross over to the V&A catalogue entry for this piece however, you will read how by the 1740's, though this cuff seems wide, it wasn't as wide as it might have been a few years earlier.
Deep cuffs, sticky out tails, these features mark out the coats of this period.
This one had accompanying breeches. Though I think mine won't have any.
And here is its accompanying waistcoat, in (complimentary) red but with the same gold trim. Notice the shape of the pockets. Waistcoat or frock coat the pockets tend to be, roughly, the same shape in the 1700 and early 1800's. Quite my favourite part.
I was interested to note the shortened mid section at the back. I haven't yet discovered why that is. Were they simply saving money where it couldn't be seen?
We also saw this piece. It was too fragile to be lifted out of its storage drawer.
And then this, in a damask patterned silk. With, again, that same shape pocket and beautiful metal and thread buttons. This one did have a certain amount of stuffing or stiffening material in the folds at the back and it had the slits down either side of the central line of the tails, a feature I have noted regularly on similar garments and still have not yet understood the meaning of. This coat is 1735-'40
Here you can see the cuffs have a shape to them. Interestingly they are far more complex than those of the green coat above which has cuffs made from a wide but simply folded straight edge. These have been cut and shaped to open nicely around a raised arm.
Here are the links to these coats in the V&A catalogue online if you'd like to read more about them:
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