Vintage Coat Dresses

The Vintage Patterns Wiki has a number of categories. One of the "dresses" subcategories is coat dresses. There are some lovely early New Look examples such as

Advance 7800 with the double row of buttons.


Gotta love the asymmetrical buttons, mandarin collar, and flared skirt on this McCall's 8585 coat dress.


The McCall’s 8609 coat dress is reminiscent of a wiggle dress.


I think it's wonderful that some coat dress lines are easily recognizable in later decades as well. It is especially helpful to know that since many of the earlier decades’ patterns are not within my price range, not within my size range, or not available at all. With a little adaptation, a more modern pattern can provide a very good retro result.

Advance 7800's double row of buttons and lapped collar are echoed in the 1970s Vogue 2606.



And the 1980s love of big shoulders and big collars is (*cough cough*) somewhat similar to the wiggle coat dress above.

Hooray for the wiki!