Saturday, February 12, 2011

Cossack's Tunic Coat Dress


The dress that I wore on Friday is one of my favourite, and one of my warmest, Winter dresses.  When I pulled it out earlier this week, with the intention of wearing it this week, I was a bit amazed that I hadn't worn it yet this Winter -- particularly since being incredibly warm it can only be worn when it is extremely cold and it has been extremely cold for the better part of this Winter.  I think that, because of where it is stowed in my house -- not within easy reach -- I had actually forgotten about it; I was excited to have re-discovered it this week.


The reason that the dress is incredibly warm is because it is actually a coat.  From the moment I tried the garment on, I knew that I would prefer to wear it as a dress, rather than as a coat, because the materials used to make the garment aren't "heavy" enough for me to consider the garment a coat.  I do think that I tried wearing the garment as a coat once, but, if I recall correctly, without much satisfaction.  The garment was made by a local (to my home city) label -- Momiji.  One of the things that I like about the label is that it uses vintage material to create some of its garments, like the dress that I wore on Friday.  I have another garment by Momiji, a jacket (click here to see it).  I am not sure, though, that that garment was made of vintage textiles.


I am wearing a vintage Momiji coat as a dress with a vintage silver pin, a vintage Zara boiled wool shawl collar jacket, old Roots un-sweatpants, vintage CK wool over-the-knee socks and riding boots by JCrew.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I adore this combo. the coat turned dress is simply perfect. These boots also, just what I want.
Do you have any close-ups of the vtg silver brooch?

wardrobetales said...

Thank you Iz bakinog ormara! I will see what I can do about including a close-up of the silver brooch in a future post. It is, without doubt, my favourite pin.

John Martens said...

I love the Cossack coat! For months I've been trying to learn more information about almost that exact style. I have a photograph from 1910 of 3 of my great great uncles wearing matching coats nearly identical to the one you're wearing.

In their picture, the buttons appear to go up the right side of the front and across the shoulder, and they have decorative belt sashes that come around the hips at a low angle. They were born in Ukraine but they were not Cossacks or military.

Do you know anything more about the name of the style, specifically if the asymmetrical design has a fashion name? I was also wondering if the collar style has its own name, too. I am surprised that I am having so much trouble trying to research this on my own.

I posted their photo at the top of my blog in case you wanted to see how similar the designs are. Their grandfather was a tailor, and he may have made those coats for them.

My ultimate dream is to have a replica made to fit me for use as a winter coat. I think it's such a beautiful design!

Thank you for blogging about that coat, it gave me hope!
-John Martens