The Bridge Coat
A luxury pea coat designed for tailoring.
Given how diverse and fluid modern wardrobes are, pea coats are an incredibly useful piece of menswear. Few other things are versatile enough to go with smart jackets and trousers, but also with jeans and knitwear.
But they’re rarely designed with tailoring in mind - usually too short to cover a traditional suit jacket, and too small in the shoulder and sleeve.
The PS Bridge Coat was based off the standard pea coat made by Private White VC. But it adds over two inches in length, so it is long enough to go over any traditional suit jacket.
And it adds some traditional design details. So the buttons up the front run sweeping, flattering lines more usually seen on overcoats. They narrow slightly from the hips into the waist, bow dramatically outwards around the chest, and then narrow again at the collar.
The buttons are two-hole, unpolished horn, a model rarely seen outside Savile Row and a favourite of Permanent Style-founder Simon Crompton. The fabric is luxurious yet robust, a 620g 20/80 cashmere/wool mix, with natural stretch that helps it work over a jacket.
Other nice points are a large, internal 'poacher's' pocket to store anything bulky, and two slit pockets in the chest, the left of which can be accessed even when the coat is fully buttoned up.
For more details and background see the Permanent Style post here.
Sizing
The Bridge Coat is slim fitting, so depending on your body shape and whether you want to wear a tailored jacket underneath it regularly, you may want to size up. It is the same fit as Private White's old cashmere pea coat.
The measurements are below - in centimetres, on a flat coat going across or up and down, rather than the circumferences.
| X-Small (46, PW2) | Small (48, PW3) | Medium (50, PW4) | Large (52, PW5) | X-large (54, PW6) | XX-large (56, PW7) | |
| Chest | 48 | 50.5 | 53 | 56.5 | 60 | 63.5 |
| Waist | 45.5 | 48 | 50.5 | 54 | 57.5 | 61 |
| Hem | 54.50 | 57 | 59.5 | 63 | 66.5 | 70 |
| Shoulder (half) | 15.1 | 16.3 | 17.5 | 17.9 | 18.4 | 18.85 |
| Bicep | 19.3 | 19.9 | 20.5 | 21.3 | 22.2 | 23.5 |
| Cuff | 13.8 | 14.4 | 15.0 | 15.4 | 15.8 | 16.2 |
| Length | 81.8 | 82.4 | 83 | 84.5 | 86 | 87.5 |
Simon is wearing a Medium (50) in the pictures. He is usually a 48 or 50 in ready-made tailoring, depending on the cut. He is 6 foot tall and wears a 32-inch-waist trouser.
The Medium is long enough to fit over all his bespoke jackets, the longest of which have a 32-inch back length.
The advice from Private White in comparison to the Trench Coat is as follows: "The trench coat has a traditional style and is made with about 6 inches of room between the wearer's measurement and the garment. This is to allow for multiple layers underneath.
"The Bridge Coat has more fitted style with only 2 inches of room. It allows for a light to semi-weight jacket underneath or a medium-weight jumper. However the cloth has much more give so it allows comfortable movement despite the narrower fit.
And in comparison to other Private White garments: "This is formal coat so it shouldn’t be worn oversized; but if you are in between sizes then you should likely size up. To compare to our Manchester Pea Coat style the coat is about a half-size slimmer in measurement but has much more forgiving fabric."
Alterations
The sleeves are made without buttons, cuffs or lines of stitching, so they are easy for any tailor to shorten. They can also be lengthened, and there is excess lining in there, allowing up to about 2cm.
The length is fairly easy to shorten, but make sure the tailor is happy altering the vent at the back. That vent also makes it very hard to lengthen, so that wouldn't be advised.
The coat can easily be taken in at the waist, with three seams to work with. But I wouldn’t recommend doing so by more than 3cm on each side. It can also be let out, up to around 2cm on each side.