The Peacoat Is Better Than Ever

Not that it ever went anywhere, but the outerwear item has never felt fresher.

Fall just started, so you may not have given much thought to which outerwear piece you want to pick up for the season ahead. But there's no better time than right now—when seasonal inventories are dropping in your favorite stores—to pick up the one piece that will anchor your cold-weather wardrobe. And this fall, the designers who want to sell you that would-be favorite coat have a specific silhouette in mind: the peacoat.

The peacoat has been a touch point for menswear designers ever since it was co-opted from military-surplus stores in the ’60s—though lately the U.S. Navy's cold-weather coat of choice had languished at the bottom of the hamster wheel of menswear tropes. For the past few years, both brands and menswear aficionados had stored theirs away in favor of parkas, puffers, and topcoats. But nearly every designer will tell you that the peacoat is about to be as popular again as it was in 2008, when noted cultural arbiter Kanye West name-checked it in Estelle's hit song "American Boy." 

"A peacoat makes you feel good because everyone knows it," said Frank Muytjens, head of menswear design at J.Crew. "You grew up on one, and I think every guy has them. It's nice to be able to do different iterations of them."

J.Crew's version, a luxurious and slightly louche peak-lapel peacoat made from camel hair, will be available in stores and online in November for $1,250. But you can find takes from Gucci, Burberry, Tommy Hilfiger, and Dries Van Noten right now.

Part of this particular outerwear piece's resurgence has to do with the increasing popularity of its closest cousin, the double-breasted suit jacket. As more designers offer up versions of the classic tailoring piece, more guys have had the option to wear it, adopting it as a style-forward alternative to the standard two-button. So it follows that they'd be more open to swapping out their single-breasted outerwear, too...