The Arthur Conan Doyle Holmes Wore a Coat Much Like the Modern Day Sherlock


To the left is a frock coat as Sherlock Holmes was described as wearing in three of the Doyle stories. In The Encyclopedia Sherlockiana the author Jack Tracy says, that the "frock-coat" is "a body-coat, usually double-breasted and with a full skirt, worn by men." The book says that Holmes wore a frock-coat in "The Empty House," The Hound of the Baskervilles, and "The Norwood Builder" (page 133 in the Avon Books 1979 edition of the encyclopedia mentioned above).

The particular frock coat shown to the left (which looks similar in some ways to the one the modern Sherlock wears in the BBC series though the buttons are definitely different) is from: Alexander McQueen Military wool frock coat but is sold out.

The modern Sherlock is very attached to his coat. He says at one point that he has several of them. When he comes back "from the dead" and gets cleaned up, in "The Empty Hearse" he wants his coat, which Mycroft seems to have kept for him (perhaps Molly took it off of the dead body they used for Watson's first look before being hit by the bicyclist and/or, perhaps Sherlock left the one he was wearing as it would be easier to travel in disguise without it).
Someone wrote who has a coat
for sale. It is "Italian size 44"
Coat has been "worn twice."
benhansen811@gmail.com
Willing to sell through eBay.
(We know nothing else about it)

Wear Sherlock says the actual coat is a Belstaff ‘Millford style’ coat. and that it is "Pure Irish wool tweed bonded with a sophisticated, ultra-light microporous film, to make it waterproof" while it is comfortable. £1,350 / $2,188 Available at Belstaff’s Conduit Street store in London. (but not available online). The Sherlock costume department added the red button hole.

For more information see This August 2010 Press Release from Belstaff which includes contact information.


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