About Cavalry Coats
Handmade military uniforms, cut to the measurements you send us.
A workshop making wool reproductions of the uniforms worn from the 17th century through the First World War, for reenactors, film and theatre, collectors, and weddings.
Cavalry Coats began with a question we kept being asked: where can a reenactor, a theatre dresser, or a wedding couple actually find a historical military uniform that is both authentic and well-made? Vintage pieces are moth-eaten and often the wrong size. High-street costume shops stock plastic buttons and printed braid. The gap in the middle is where we work.
Every coat we make is a new reproduction, not an antique. We cut each piece to the measurements you send us. We use 100 percent wool melton for the body, hand-laid Russia braid for frogging, cotton or silk lining, and metal buttons. A dolman takes real hours of hand work; a Napoleonic officer's tailcoat takes real days. We do not shortcut the braid, and we do not pretend to.
The work we do
About half our orders are custom commissions. A reenactor sends us a reference image or regiment number, a film costume designer sends a plate from a sketchbook, a bride sends a photograph of a jacket her grandfather wore in a wartime wedding photograph. We quote, we build, we ship. The other half is our standing range: hussar dolmans and pelisses, Napoleonic infantry and cavalry uniforms, Regency tailcoats in the style of Mr Darcy, Victorian frock coats, British redcoats, pirate frock coats, and ceremonial dress for cavalry and marching bands.
The clients that keep coming back are living-history groups across Europe and North America, studio wardrobe departments working on period cinema, private collectors who want display pieces, and couples who have decided their wedding photographs should look like no one else's.
How a Cavalry Coats commission works
- You send us a reference, a regiment, or a product you like, and your measurements: chest, waist, shoulder, sleeve, height.
- We quote the piece, confirm the timeline, and start the pattern.
- The jacket is cut in wool, lined, and the braid is laid by hand.
- We photograph the finished coat before shipping.
- We ship tracked, worldwide.
What we care about
Three things. Fit, because a hussar jacket worn even one inch too loose stops looking like a hussar jacket. Material, because wool holds a shape and photographs truthfully and synthetics do not. And correctness, because the clients who commission us almost always know the uniform better than we do by the time we talk, and getting it right is the point of the whole exercise.
If you have an upcoming event, a stage production, a wedding, a reenactment season, or a specific regiment you need faithfully reproduced, we would like to make it for you.
Or browse our standing collections: Hussar, Napoleonic, Regency, Frock Coats, British Military.