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I understand that modern outer layers are more functional. A leather jacket, for example, can be dressed up or down so as to be worn in a variety of situations. It is also better at keeping you warm.
However, I think capes/cloaks are more aesthetically pleasing garments. It also feels good to have the fabric flowing around you as you walk. But what do you think?
The actual reason that we don't is pretty much because of the invention of sewing machines. Once sewing machines were widespread, making coats became sooo much cheaper than they had been. Coats need a lot of tightly made seams which took time and so made coats very expensive. With sewing machines, making these seams was vastly quicker and more reliable.
Coats win over cloaks in so many ways because you can do things with your arms without exposing them or your torso to the rain and cold: impossible with a cloak.
Capes were the short versions - and intended to cover the shoulder and back without seams that might let the rain in, but with the new machine made seams, they were not needed either.
The really big change was when it became affordable to outfit armies with coats instead of cloaks or capes. At that point all the caché and prestige that was associated with military rank disappeared from cloaks and capes and they were suddenly neither useful not fashionable.
Nowadays, of course, they are no longer what your unfashionable dad would have worn: they are quite old enough to have regained a certain style.
Awesome comment. Today I learned something.
The other big reason is that the world is cleaner. Capes and cloaks also protect the whole body from mud/dust and can be easily removed. Riding a horse or walking on dirt roads is a lot dirtier than riding in cars or walking on a sidewalk
The original type of coat that would have been worn when riding was the Great Coat - which did cover the whole body, down to the ankles (and included the front of the body much better than a cloak). Those would have been worn by military officers, particularly.
Those were fine for riding, but then if you were off your horse and end up in the newly developed trench warfare - starting from around the US civil war onwards - you ended up wading through mud which got caked to the coat. So then they started cutting the coats shorter and they became Trench Coats.
I WOULD LIKE TO SUBSCRIBE TO COAT AND CAPE FACTS
you ended up wading through mud
Horse shit. In cities, you waded through horse shit.
As someone who has done extensive reenactment in period dress, sometimes in towns dedicated to realism that banned cars and relied on horses for travel, you wouldn’t believe how terrible even a dozen carriages and a few dozen private horses can be to your skirts/trousers and shoes. Especially when it rains.
People sometimes make light of women in the past who changed their outer clothes two or three times a day, but if you were in town, your attire would be absolutely foul after a few hours in the same outer skirt. A long cloak helped immensely to keep your skirts or trousers from soaking up horse sewage.
Once cars took over, that stopped being a problem, cloaks weren’t as desirable as they obscured fashion, and coats became shorter and more for protection from the weather than from horse shit.
There was a bit of military influence, but that was more about fashion than functional influence.
e: clarification
Vogue tells a different history of the trench coat, claiming its origins are actually raincoats for active well-to-do British gentlemen:
https://www.vogue.fr/fashion/article/vogue-encyclopaedia-the-history-of-the-trench-coat
I know someone who wears a cloak cape. They explained this to me how practical it was back 300 years ago that you could wear your nightly blanket.
I asked them if that was a situation they ran into often while living in Brooklyn. Having to bed down for the night with your cloak.
100% of the cloaks and capes I've seen IRL have been as part of either someone's weird cosplay or some neckbeard/weeb shit. I think that, a bit like the fedora, they're just sorta ruined now due to the people who wear them.
They've just morphed. A poncho is basically a cloak that doesn't open. A long dress coat is basically a cloak with formal buttons.
A long dress coat is basically a cloak with formal buttons.
Also sleeves, which are the main difference anyway
It's because of cars and trains
Horses and to a lesser extent bikes let you just throw the cape out behind you as you ride, but if you're riding in a chair, you have to bunch it up as you're getting in so you don't accidentally auto-asphyxiate yourself with the titanic cheeks you inherited from yo mama
I feel like capes went out of style around the industrial revolution for the very reasons outlined in The Incredibles by Edna as to why she doesn't design costumes with capes.
Definitely wouldn't want my cape to get caught in a car or train door.
Women can get away with it. My coworker has a beautiful full-length, wool winter cape she wears just for every-day. I bet men could, too, with a suit on a formal occasion.
Yep, I have shorter ones for more casual outfits and full length for dressy events. They never seem “costumey” when they go with the overall look. I’m a woman in a metro area though.
nothing’s stopping you from wearing one.
As an avid cloak lover, I can attest that the reasons others state about practicality are pretty much spot on. That said, my 3/4 round wool cloak with a cotton liner is the warmest and coziest winter garment I have ever owned. I have three of them, and a lighter blue velvet one for dressy occasions in spring/fall.
Getting into a car with a big cloak though is tougher than with a normal coat. Once you get the hang of it, it's not a problem, but it does take some practice! I do love my cloaks and I would love to see them make a comeback though!
Wear whatever you want.
People mostly used to wear cloaks to keep the elements off of them.
Lots of mud and dirt from horseback riding back then--also rain.
We're indoors a lot more now. Most of us don't work outside and our transportation, mainly automobiles, are protected from the elements.
As the function became irrelevant, so did the clothing choice.
Gotta take it off before you got to the bathroom or it touches the toilet
I use enough of my income on functional clothing that the idea of spending anything on something which does wat a coat does but worse and without pockets makes me physically ill. I'm just not the right type of autistic to want to walk around dressed like a highwayman and I don't own a brace of flintlock pistols.
Cars (and seatbelts) are the biggest reason I see. Cloaks:
They’re great for pedestrians but not so much for motorists, cyclists, and motorcyclists.
While they were already in decline, the trend of Capes an Cloaks really dropped sharply in the 1950's. With improving technology in the transportation sector and the rising prevalence of jet engines, the risk of getting sucked into an air intake or caught in some piece of machinery was just too great. Punctuated by a series of gruesome incidents , the new rule in fashion was set. No Capes.
I had a fairly nice cape for halloween this year (I was the devil from The Undead) and by the end of the evening I was convinced I was a cape guy now. They hold in so much heat but that's easily controlled by flapping the front a bit (by just swinging your arms more or less as you walk). With the right fabric, water just sheets off and generally misses your shoes in the process. And a broad collar makes for a great windbreak when turned up. It was great!
I haven't worn it since.
Not very practical anymore. Would get caught in all sorts of things in cars/trains/bikes/planes or whatever mode of transportation you use. The common person in general tends to mean towards practicality > aesthetics in the long term.
Function > form
I think there are more things now for them to get caught on or in. :( Probably more hassle than they are worth.
"It is also better at keeping you warm"
Not even remotely accurate. I actually used to have a full size woollen cloak, and it is unbelievable how good they are at keeping out the elements. I have literally slept in the middle of a forest, in only jeans, a t-shirt, and that cloak, and I was toasty warm. I've sheltered through torrential downpours and snow storms in it. There is basically nothing as warm as a proper wool cloak.
We actually had a champion for a while. So far he hasn't really achieved the original goal, but that doesn't mean that the dream is dead.
Heck, if he doesn't do it, I will! We need capes back in fashion. Either subtle renaissance style fashionable shoulder capes or full blown cloaks that can double as blankets in a pinch.
Shawls are pretty popular in South Asia during winter and can vary wildly in size allowing a wide variety of fashion options, including Wizarding World cosplays. 🤷
We invented sleeves.
I'm getting into sewing right now. A cape will be my first project. Imma wear the shit out of my cape. Luckily I live in a place where people don't really care about what you wear. I've seen capes in the wild before.
