tailcoat

Also known as tails, swallow-tail coat, tail coat, dress coat, swallow-tailed coat, dog tails

A tailcoat is a knee-length coat characterised by a rear section of the skirt (known as the tails), with the front of the skirt cut away.

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Commons category: Tailcoats

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Contents

History
Shadbelly
Levée dress coat
Military coatee
Highland coatee
Footman's coat
Dress coat
Morning coat
References
Bibliography

A tailcoat is a knee-length coat characterised by a rear section of the skirt (known as the tails), with the front of the skirt cut away.

The tailcoat shares its historical origins in clothes cut for convenient horse-riding in the Early Modern era. From the 18th century, however, tailcoats evolved into general forms of day and evening formal wear, in parallel to how the lounge suit succeeded the frock coat (19th century) and the justacorps (18th century).