The Frock Coat
The gentleman's coat, 1840s–1910s
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The frock coat was the Victorian man's working armor: a knee-length coat with a defined waist seam and full skirts, worn buttoned up over a waistcoat with trousers and a top hat. It grew out of the loose country 'frock' of the 18th century and hardened into formal daywear in the 1840s. This detail of a double-breasted style — the redingote croisée, or 'crossed redingote' — comes from a tailor's fashion plate of October 1837, the very year the eighteen-year-old Victoria came to the throne.
No one did more for the frock coat than the Prince Consort. Prince Albert wore it constantly, and his example made the dark frock coat the respectable uniform of the professional classes — the coat of the counting house, the courtroom, and the pulpit. The double-breasted version was even nicknamed the 'Prince Albert'. Etiquette was strict: a gentleman kept his coat buttoned and never removed it in company, whatever the heat. Abraham Lincoln wore a frock coat when he delivered the Gettysburg Address in November 1863.
After the First World War the lounge suit finally displaced it for ordinary business, and the frock coat retreated to weddings, funerals, and formal daytime ceremony. But it never truly left: the morning coat, with its front cut away for horseback riding, is the frock coat's direct descendant and is still worn at British weddings today.
Frequently asked
What was a frock coat?
A knee-length man's coat with a waist seam and full skirts, worn buttoned with trousers and a top hat — the standard formal daywear of Victorian professional men from the 1840s to the First World War.
Who wore frock coats?
Bankers, lawyers, doctors, clergymen, and businessmen — Prince Albert's patronage made the dark frock coat the respectable uniform of the Victorian professional classes, and Abraham Lincoln wore one at Gettysburg.
When did men stop wearing frock coats?
After the First World War, when the lounge suit displaced it for ordinary business. It survived as formal morning dress — the modern morning coat, still worn at British weddings, is its direct descendant.
Why it matters today
The morning coat — still worn at British weddings and formal daytime events — is the frock coat's direct descendant, its skirts cut away at the front for the saddle.
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