Posts Tagged ‘expert sailors’
A cheap pea coat (or pea jacket, pilot jacket) is an outer coat, generally of a navy-colored heavy wool, originally worn by sailors of European navies. Pea coats are characterized by broad lapels, double-breasted fronts, often big wooden or metal buttons, and vertical or slash pockets. Even though it first appeared in the early 19th century, modern day renditions nevertheless maintain the first design and composition.
A “bridge coat” is a pea coat that extends towards the thighs, and is a uniform exclusively for officers and Chief Petty Officers. The “reefer” is for officers exclusively, and is identical to the basic style but usually has gold buttons and epaulettes.
Today the style is considered a traditional, and cheap mens pea coats are now worn by all manner of individuals, not just expert sailors. Often worn by a woman, it’s often referred to as a Jackie O Jacket. This jacket is very related, but not exactly the same being a trench coat.
Note that few of the jackets noticed about the street are genuine navy surplus; getting a classic garment, it is often available from retailers, although frequently with small style modifications that reflect the current fashion trends. The common for historical pea coats was 30 oz. wool, but presently coats are made from 22-32 oz. wool. While cheap pea coats are provided in many colours by retailers, the U.S. Navy-issue pea coat is constantly dark blue.
The phrase “pea coat” originated from the Dutch or West Frisian word pijjekker, by which pij referred towards the kind of cloth used, which was called “Pilot cloth” , a coarse kind of twilled blue cloth with a nap on a single side. The cloth was occasionally known as P-cloth for the initial letter from the term and also the garment created from it was called a p-jacket – later cheap wool pea coats