Help dating velvet coat with ornamental braid & toggle closures

[DaisyandStella]

Hi all,
Can anyone help me narrow down the era for this coat?
She is made of velvet and features an ornamental soutache braid with two toggle closures.
The sleeves are gathered and puffed at the tops and tapered towards the hem.
She has a somewhat princess flare - not super full - but definitely a flared silhouette.
The coat is fully lined - with something a bit finer than acetate more silky to the touch but not silk.
Also there is a padded layer in-between the lining and an inner more layer of a stiff interfacing.
Due to the silhouette I was thinking 1940s but i'm questioning if it could be older?

Thanks for any input!
Brooke

 

[Circa Vintage Clothing]

Hi Brooke,

Nice coat: some questions.....

• Can you tell what sort of velvet? Cotton, rayon, silk or polyester?
• Any shoulder pads or sleeve headers?
• How are the seams and hem sewn? Or is it all attached so you can't see inside?
• What are the toggles made of: wood or plastic or something else?
• It looks like it has a nice, deep hem - can you tell if it's original or has been taken up?
  
• How long is the skirt?

thank you.

 

[Luna Junction]

I lightened-up the photo. It's really quite telling now!

 

[Circa Vintage Clothing]

Aha! Very good: thank you.

Can you help with any of the questions? I'm trying to decide between late '30s and early '50s.

 

[poppysvintageclothing]

What a pretty coat. I think it is very late 40s or early 50s but it certainly has an older influence with those large frog closures and its styling.
It's the lining that is making me feel it is from this timeframe and the length.

 

[Luna Junction]

With that wasp waist and the wide hem (it may originally have been longer) , I vote for late 40s/early 50s too. It looks like rayon velvet.

 

[DaisyandStella]

Hi Brooke,

Nice coat: some questions.....

• Can you tell what sort of velvet? Cotton, rayon, silk or polyester?
• Any shoulder pads or sleeve headers?
• How are the seams and hem sewn? Or is it all attached so you can't see inside?
• What are the toggles made of: wood or plastic or something else?
• It looks like it has a nice, deep hem - can you tell if it's original or has been taken up?
  
• How long is the skirt? thank you.

1. Nicole - the velvet has a cotton type backing, so would this mean cotton velvet?
2. There are no shoulder pads or sleeve headers. The sleeve shoulder does have pleated gathers at top giving it a slight puff. I've added a photo to try to show these gathered pleats.
3. I've two pics of the hem seam - they are open and not stitched together at hem. The first image shows the velvet hem and the second image shows the padded lining folded up also showing the interface underneath which is a cut hem.
4. Toggles are made of wood.
5. Based on the hem pictures, I am thinking this probably wasn't the original hem line.
6. From the waist, the skirt portion measures 26" in length.

Thanks much!

 

[DaisyandStella]

I lightened-up the photo. It's really quite telling now!
View attachment 40958

Thank you Sunny! I think i'll lighten up my original photos more to show the details better ~ Brooke

 

[DaisyandStella]

What a pretty coat. I think it is very late 40s or early 50s but it certainly has an older influence with those large frog closures and its styling.
It's the lining that is making me feel it is from this timeframe and the length.

Thanks Mary Jane! The lining also made me think it may not be older than 40s. The few coats I've come across and seen from the 1920s - 30s usually all have silk or satin lining.

 

[Pinkcoke]

Does the construction allow you to go between the lining and velvet to see if the shoulders have been taken in? as your photo looks as though there is a deep pleat across the shoulder that is contributing to the puff of the sleeve head there.

 

[DaisyandStella]

Does the construction allow you to go between the lining and velvet to see if the shoulders have been taken in? as your photo looks as though there is a deep pleat across the shoulder that is contributing to the puff of the sleeve head there.

Hi Melanie - there definitely is a longer deep pleat in the center which looks like a tuck when it tapers. Two smaller pleats are in front of the deep center pleat with one smaller pleat after so maybe originally that center pleat was the same size as the others. Unfortunately i cannot get all the way up underneath to check without taking out all the waist stitches.

 

[Pinkcoke]

Can you feel along that shoulder line, to see if this is the original shoulder seam, in which case you should find two edges either side of the seam which is the selvedge underneath, or if it was taken in later, you might have one fold that will only go in one direction, with the selvedges at the edge of this. I know this is difficult to do in a thicker material but it's worth a try.

 

[DaisyandStella]

Can you feel along that shoulder line, to see if this is the original shoulder seam, in which case you should find two edges either side of the seam which is the selvedge underneath, or if it was taken in later, you might have one fold that will only go in one direction, with the selvedges at the edge of this. I know this is difficult to do in a thicker material but it's worth a try.

I am so glad I am learning here with these questions - I turned the sleeve inside out and you can definitely see where the original seam was - open stitch marks so the original shoulder would have been wider set. I've attached a pic. Now i feel a little silly for not looking closer! There are also definite stitch marks along the outer velvet shoulder seam!