Duffel coat

There are many variations of duffel coat. The basic British style features:

• Genuine double weave woollen duffel fabric, lined with a woolly tartan pattern, or plain in the military version.
• Three or, later, four front wooden or horn toggle and leather fastenings.
• Two large outside patch pockets, with covering flaps on post-war versions.
• Originally knee length; shorter on later versions.
• A buttonable neck strap.
• Bucket hood with press stud adjustment. Later versions feature a neater "pancake" hood.

The large toggles and long ropes from the army coats were designed to enable easily fastening and unfastening while wearing gloves in cold weather. Current designs often feature imitation plastic buffalo horn. The original hood was oversized to allow room for a Naval cap.

Toggle-and-rope fastenings have been in use since ancient times, in China among other places. The Duffel cloth has been manufactured since about the 1450s in Belgium and since the 1550s in The Netherlands (Leiden). The initial influence of what became the duffel coat, might have been the hooded Polish military frock coat, which was developed in the 1820s. It had the unusual features of a toggle closure and an integrated hood, and by 1850 had spread through Europe.

In the 1890s the British Admiralty purchased the coat in quantity for the Royal Navy from multiple manufacturers, where it was referred to as the "convoy coat". The navy issued a camel-coloured variant during World War I, most probably also made from Melton wool.

The design of the coat was modified slightly and widely issued during World War II. It became known under the nickname "Monty coat".

Large post-war stocks of low-cost military surplus coats turned the duffel into a ubiquitous item of British civilian clothing in the 1950s and 1960s, especially among students. The firm Gloverall purchased large quantities, and in 1954 started producing their own version using leather fastenings and buffalo horn toggles with a double-faced check lining, and many other modern versions copy some or all of those features.

Today, the duffel coat is often made of Melton cloth, as opposed to modern duffel cloth, which is a softer wool fabric with a distinct nap used for high-end coats and parkas.

In Italy as well as in Greece and The Netherlands, the duffel coat is called a Montgomery, or montycoat, after Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, who often wore one during World War II.

British Major Calloway played by Trevor Howard in the 1949 movie The Third Man wears a standard issue Army duffel coat throughout the film.

In the Doctor Who serial The Curse of Fenric, the Seventh Doctor wears a tan duffel coat over his costume.

In the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, Buster Merryfield's character Uncle Albert is often seen wearing his duffel coat along with his signature blue mariner's cap.

In the BBC series Jonathan Creek, part of the titular character's signature look includes a duffel coat, which was from actor Alan Davies's own closet.

Designed by his creator Michael Bond, a blue duffel coat is one of the signature items in Paddington Bear’s wardrobe, alongside a hat that is often depicted as red.