Loden overcoat thread: 2nd try, more kindling this time…

[Pr B]

Love Loden!

I have a Loden coat I picked up at Scotch House, in London, back in '88. LOVE it: comfortable raglan sleeves, warm, windproof, and soft to the touch. I believe it is cut in what the English would call a hunting pattern. Only recently is the weave losing its finish.

But, yeah, Loden is hard to find in the US.

 

[turban1]

too hot or not?

I adore the look of trachten/loden overcoats, but are they too warm?

by that i mean that my overwound biological thermostat (a mixed metaphor for which i apologise) is quite warm enough in a covert coat. is a loden much warmer?

with thanks,

 

[Pr B]

Warm?

They are warm. I wear mine when we have snow on the ground here (typically, Nov-Apr), when the high temperatures stay below freezing (+32F, 0C). It is warm enough down to about 0 degrees F (i.e., -18C). (Although it's 77 F here today--and that's no April Fools!)

 

[vwguy]

I like the look of the Strada, tell me more.

Brian

 

[127.72 MHz]

Right you are Tweedy. Most shades of green I'm happy with but it would be nice to see pictures,...

I'm come to the point where I no longer "Save" my favorite sport coats,....or any clothing in general. I want to wear it! I would wear one of these Loden coats all rainy, at times snowy, Winter here in the pacific northwest

I'd thought about a Bookster heavy weight tweed and may yet do it.
But I kind of like the Austria Trad thing going on with the Loden coats. I'd like to feel the fabric.

These are interesting-looking coats. Can someone tell me more about their functionality? I wish the princeton place would've had photographs, and not just diagrams!

 

[Lechner]

More on my passion about Salko Loden...
History
Loden Cloth originated some 800 to 1,000 years ago as the fabric of Austria's mountain farmers and day laborers, and by the 17th Century, riflemen had adopted it for their uniforms. In the 19th Century, Kaiser Franz Josef I made it popular with the aristocracy. Today, its appeal has spread to all sectors of the apparel industry, including haute couture. Young European guys are captured by the traditional “Hubertus” hunting coat with its must-have-to-be-authentic open arm holes that make it easier to mount and fire a shotgun.

To produce Loden fabric, strong yarns are woven loosely into cloth which then undergoes a lengthy process of shrinking, eventually acquiring the texture of felt and becoming quite dense. It is then brushed or “fulled” and the nap is clipped, a process which is repeated a number of times until the fabric is lightweight, supple, windproof and extremely durable.

Fulling is the process of fluffing up an already woven or knitted piece of woolen cloth. It's to be distinguished from felting, which takes raw fleece and puts it through the same process without having any initial structure. Fulling makes the wool softer, fuzzier and thicker (so warmer for the same weight) but still very pliable. Loden cloth, developed to deal with Alpine climate, is knitted before it's fulled.

Sustainable
Wool is a perfectly-renewable resource, quick-growing and if anything helpful in the harvest to its producer.

Salko’s Offerings – 2010
Salko offers long (118 cm) and ¾-length (100 cm) coats in three Loden fabrics:
· Pure Wool: 15%Alpaca Wool/85%European Wool, weighing 580 grams (~20 oz.)
· Mixed Wool: 75%Wool/20%Polyamide/5%Cashmere, 580 grams
· Mixed “light” Wool : 80%Wool/20% Polyamide, 300grams (~11 oz.)
Many coats have removable wool lining for climate versatility. Some are very trad with Euro shoulders, others have raglan shoulders and still others have yielded to modern tastes with more tailoring and set-in shoulders.
As of April 2010, I am just lining up retailers and ask that you recommend stores to me and me to stores you would like carrying these heirloom quality coats. Descriptions of the coats are on the Salko website(https://www.christa-moden.at/index.php?mid=8&smid=26#produkt_8). I can be contacted at [email protected]

 

[Lechner]

Salko Loden Coats will be available this fall...

Thanks to Andy's Forum, you may find Salko Loden Coats in one of these stores this fall:

The Andover Shop at The Andover Shop in Boston and Cambridge, MA
Nick Hilton Studio in Princeton, NJ
O'Connell's in Buffalo, NY
Family Britches in Chappaqua, NY
Mur-Lee's in Lynbrook (Long Island, NY)
Rothman's on Union Square, New York City

More to come...

 

[Dandan]

Eleven years later....

Pre-war Germans (from ca. 1860 to 1945) and post-war West Germans (until ca. the late 1960s) commonly bought high-quality home furnishings and clothing, but they tried their best to use them as little as possible. These people lived their lives and then died, and their belongings, which they assumed would become heirlooms, are worth very little now. I furnished my entire previous apartment with good-quality antiques and near-antiques in excellent condition—furniture, fixtures, mirrors, lamps, curtains, crockery, carpets—for less than €3,000. My German friends mocked me, saying that my place looked like their grandmothers’. (It’s not true: German grandmothers are very fond of lace and kitschy ornaments.)

A loden coat, usually Austrian made, was a staple in the closets of German men who are now dead or very old, but lodens are now seen as old fashioned and rarely worn, although one still sees them occasionally in Southern Germany and German hunters still often wear loden jackets and pants. I’ve lived in Berlin for a decade, and I’ve never seen anyone in this city wear a loden coat. As a result, vintage lodens in new condition can be bought for very little, from €30 to €300, most typically €50 to €100. The best place to look for them in Germany is https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/, and the two best search terms are https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-kleidung-herren/loden/k0c160 and https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-kleidung-herren/lodenmantel/k0c160 .

If anyone abroad is keen on purchasing an “authentic” loden, I think the shipping costs are worth it, and Google Translate is your friend.

For a decent introduction to loden coats, the Gentleman’s Gazette has a helpful article: https://www.gentlemansgazette.com/loden-coat-guide/ . The first photo in the article shows one of the two classic loden styles for men. Note in particular the colour, the collar, the shoulders, and the cuffs. You can’t see it in the photos, but the pockets are slanted; that’s also traditional. The rear of that style of loden looks like so, with a long vent:

The other classic loden style is like this one from Loden Frey, although they weren’t quite so slim in the past: https://www.lodenfrey.com/LODENFREY...a9zm1KUm9ZfqfR5WH5RSRbuBfmdQY-YBoC0FwQAvD_BwE

This type of loden also often comes in two tones—grey with green edging—and sometimes with subtle decorative stitching in the shape of oak leaves on the edge of the cape-like thing (front and back), and sometimes also on the lapel and cuffs.

I’m not certain, but I believe that the first style is more typical of a hunting loden and the second of a city loden.

Classic lodens have deer-antler, leather or horn buttons. Lodens sometimes also come with leather buttonholes and cuff piping, and sometimes also with hidden buttons.

 

[delicious_scent]

@Dandan Thanks for the ebay hunting tips.

The T-shaped shoulder line is interesting. I've seen it before, but it repulsed me then, but intrigues me now.

I'm sure it's because I'm just not used to seeing it. I used to rag on raglan sleeves for looking like a potato sack, but that's precisely the appeal for me now.

 

[Dandan]

@delicous_scent: is the T-shaped shoulder the type of shoulder on the first coat? I didn't know what it was called.

I am also fond of raglan sleeves. But I also like the T-shaped shoulder (if that's the first coat), even though it's kind of the opposite of raglan sleeves. It allows more mobility than any other shoulder in any other coat I have. The fabric on the body is pulled less when you move my arms forwards and backwards. Also, the armpits on this type of shoulder are often not sewn closed, which allows you to lift your arms above your head without pulling your whole coat up with them.

 

[delicious_scent]

@delicous_scent: is the T-shaped shoulder the type of shoulder on the first coat? I didn't know what it was called.

I am also fond of raglan sleeves. But I also like the T-shaped shoulder (if that's the first coat), even though it's kind of the opposite of raglan sleeves. It allows more mobility than any other shoulder in any other coat I have. The fabric on the body is pulled less when you move my arms forwards and backwards. Also, the armpits on this type of shoulder are often not sewn closed, which allows you to lift your arms above your head without pulling your whole coat up with them.

I don't know what it's called, but it gives off a distinct T silhouette to me.

All of that range of motion and mobility sounds really appealing to me now. Sounds similiar to coats that have a bi-swing back, I love my field jacket that has one.