Back in 2006, when Tim Healey first put together Melomania to play at Oxford Folk Festival, I was given an old second-hand tailcoat to wear as part of the costume. At the time, I thought it was quite a nice garment, but only really in the sense that a bit of old-fashioned formal-wear had a costumey charm. I wore it for Melomania and later took to wearing it when playing for the morris as well. I have also worn it occasionally in other contexts as well, but only ever as costume. I never really treated it with very much respect; it was just something that was occasionally fun to put on.
I haven’t worn it for a while. When we did Melomania at Cornbury this year I wore my morning coat instead, since it seemed more appropriate to a daytime event anyway. But this afternoon, I dug it out and had a look at it, and was pleasantly surprised by what a superb garment it actually is.
For starters, the fabric is lovely. It’s a really smooth, fine wool and there’s a subtle herringbone pattern to the weave that looks really nice. The lapels are faced in a nice grosgrain silk. And it’s in great condition, too; there’s a slight rip to the seam at the top of the vent, but that should be easy enough to repair and is completely invisible from the outside. Other than that it doesn’t have any real faults at all.
I was at least partly aware of these aspects already. But I discovered two more things about it this afternoon that I wasn’t aware of before. Firstly, it has working cuff buttons. I don’t actually know how common this feature is on tailcoats. Probably more so than on lounge jackets but I don’t think it’s something to be taken for granted even here.
Perhaps most interestingly, I found a label inside the pocket. It has the name of the tailor embroidered on it (Maurice Burnard Ltd. of Birmingham), and printed below that is “D.C.Y.HIGGS, ESQ. 5.12.52″. Which makes this tailcoat a little over twice as old as I am.
In most respects it’s not a bad fit, either. Slightly long in the arms, but not badly so. But it’s just a little bit short. I tried it on with my evening waistcoat and there’s easily 2cm between the bottom of the coat and the waistcoat. So while it’s fine for use as costume, it wouldn’t be quite right to use as part of a ‘proper’ white-tie ensemble.
Next week I’m going to see a tailor to enquire about getting a dinner jacket adjusted to fit. While I’m there, I’ll also ask whether it would be possible to have this tailcoat modified, too. I suspect not or, if it is possible, it would be too expensive to be worth it. But if that’s the case it’ll be a real shame, as it’s a wonderful garment.