Unique Man's coat of blue/green shot ribbed silk, Great Britain, 1785-1790 A man’s coat of blue and green shot ribbed silk, with 2½-inch (6.4 cm) turn-down collar and curving 2-piece sleeves end in mariner’s cuffs, 3½ inches (8.7 cm) deep. The fronts curve from neck to hem with pleats 3½ inches (8.7 cm) deep, below the hip set beside the centre back. Each front has a pocket with rectangular pocket flap; the centre-back seam is open below the hip. The back, sleeves and pockets are lined with bleached linen, the fronts, skirts and pocket flaps with blue and green shot silk twill. There are 10 worked buttonholes along the left front, the lower 3 are uncut, with 10 corresponding self-covered buttons along the right front edge, 2 on each cuff (with 2 working buttonholes) and 1 at the top and hem of the pleats. Iridescent blue and green ribbed silk add a luxurious quality to this plain frock coat of the late 1780s. The most fashionable coat styles for men featured fronts curving sharply back, a high turned-down collar, long tight sleeves. By the 1780s the side pleats had moved towards the centre back seam, and were much less voluminous than in previous decades. The cuffs are in the 'mariner's' style made popular in the mid-18th century although these are narrower and shallower. They have an opening perpendicular to the cuff, with buttons and working buttonholes.