Commissioning an overcoat from a warm country

Men’s Overcoat Tailored, Chiang Mai: why it is worth doing

An overcoat is one of the best-value garments to commission here, and the reason is the labour-to-materials ratio.

A hand-finished coat involves a great deal of work: heavy cloth to handle, a full lining, a collar that has to be built to stand, and pockets that carry weight. Labour is a larger share of the final price than it is on a simpler garment, so the saving relative to buying the same coat in a cold country is proportionally larger.

The catch is entirely about fitting a cold-weather garment while standing in the tropics.

Fit it over the layers, not over a shirt

This is the failure mode, and it is not recoverable afterwards.

An overcoat has to close over whatever you actually wear underneath in winter: a suit jacket, a heavy knit, sometimes both. It has to do so without straining across the chest or restricting your arms.

If you are measured in a shirt in a warm shop, the coat will be beautiful and unwearable over tailoring the first cold day at home. Dense melton has essentially no stretch, so a coat that is marginally tight in the fitting room is genuinely restrictive in use.

Bring the jacket. If you genuinely cannot, measure it flat, chest and shoulder and sleeve, and describe the knitwear. The allowance gets built into the pattern.

Choose weight for the destination

In a warm shop, everything feels heavy. Trust the number rather than the sensation.

• 350 to 400 g — topcoat, mild weather only
• 400 to 550 g — a proper winter overcoat, the right range for most northern climates
• 550 to 700 g — heavy and very warm, correct for genuinely cold places

The weight is doing the work. A coat that feels comfortable to try on in Chiang Mai is almost certainly too light for the place you are taking it. See wool overcoats.

What to specify

Length. Knee length is the most versatile and covers a suit jacket properly.

A collar that stands. Ask specifically for a collar that can be turned up and will stay up. It is the difference between a coat that works in wind and one that only looks as though it would.

A slippery lining. More important than it sounds: it is what lets the coat go on over a jacket without dragging the sleeves up your arms.

Deep pockets. Deep enough for gloves, and flapped if the coat will see weather.

Getting it home

Shipping is usually the better option. See international shipping for packing and customs, and check your own country’s import rules before ordering, since a coat is a higher-value item.