Request for info on vintage Burberry Irish tweed coat

[Janice D]

Hello,

New to forum hoping to get information of any kind, especially age and style, on a men's wool tweed burberry coat I found while cleaning out my parents home.

I've included pictures that will hopefully help folks. Person wearing coat is 5'8" weighing 145lbs if that's at all helpful.

Thank you for any help you might provide.

Janice

 

[poppysvintageclothing]

Nice one! I am seeing late 50s / early 60s on this one. It would be interesting to learn when that Curran's shop was in Lowell.

 

[retro ruth]

what a great tweed. We don't have this Burberry's label in our label resource, and it'd be great to add it, with your permission. I haven't seen the Burberry's Irish Tweed label before either. The main label is similar, but not the same, to this one from the 40s-50s. In the early 60s the labels change quite a bit, so Mary Jane's timeline seems right. As she suggests, if you could find the history of Curran's store in Lowell, that might help date it as well.

 

[Janice D]

what a great tweed. We don't have this Burberry's label in our label resource, and it'd be great to add it, with your permission. I haven't seen the Burberry's Irish Tweed label before either. The main label is similar, but not the same, to this one from the 40s-50s. In the early 60s the labels change quite a bit, so Mary Jane's timeline seems right. As she suggests, if you could find the history of Curran's store in Lowell, that might help date it as well.

You are welcome to use the labels ... I will update the thread if I find any more details worth sharing.

 

[retro ruth]

@Ranch Queen Vintage new Burberry labels offered here.

 

[lkranieri]

Nice one! I am seeing late 50s / early 60s on this one. It would be interesting to learn when that Curran's shop was in Lowell.

I wasn't able to find much about Curran's, but what I found was around the time Mary Jane suggested:

--- From a 1954 Lowell Mass city directory: "CLOTHING DEALERS-MEN'S AND YOUNG MEN'S-Curran, James P. (Fenway Clothes Shop) 198 Central..." (see note at bottom)*

--- From this 1956 Lowell city directory listing:

you can see the name of the store is listed first in all the entries above. The name of the store, then, was known as James P Curran (see next entry) and, apparently, also by the name Fenway Clothes Shop.

--- From a 1961 ad, with a list of where to buy the items of men's clothing:

--- From a 1964 publication titled Men's Wear: "...James P. Curran head of Curran's, Lowell, Mass., named a trustee of the Lowell Five Cent Savings Bank..."
--- From a caption for a 1971 photo of models wearing men's clothing from Lowell stores: "...For James P. Curran's clothing store for men, Tom Fitzpatrick and light blue check sport coat by D'Angelo..."
--- From a 1975 Lowell newspaper: "Other retail stores which left the city this year include Curran's clothing store on Central Street..."

* As some of the entries above show, James Curran's store was known as James P. Curran and, for a time at least, also known as Fenway Clothes Shop, then often just referred to as Curran's.

 

[lkranieri]

From the 1950 Lowell MA city directory

 

[lkranieri]

Note that in this 1966 Lowell MA city directory no Fenway Clothes Shop is listed. I could not find any online Lowell city directory between 1956 and 1966, so we can't pinpoint when exactly the men's store became just (James P.) Curran's.

 

[GemGem]

From the 1950 Lowell MA city directory

View attachment 180475

Oh wow, this is amazing. Love that there is a photo too!

 

[Janice D]

I'll second the "wow"... This is great! Thanks to everyone for providing such interesting info!