Overcoat

Double breasted wool overcoat, c. 1968. Designed by Blades, Burlington Gardens. The owner of this coat was six foot three inches tall but only ten stone in weight when he bought this coat off the peg from Blades in the late 1960s. He wore it for the following ten years. The coat's full skirts, sweeping lapels, bold checks and capacious buttoned flap pockets make passing references to the 18th century country squire but they also evoke the swagger of the tall, skinny Chelsea dandies of the 1960s.

Blades opened in 1962, run by three partners who included Eton-educated Rupert Lycett Green and Eric Joy, a tailor who was an expert cutter. Their customers were mainly louche, rich, public school educated young men who wanted well-made high fashion clothes.