A coat is typically an outer garment for the upper body, worn by any gender for warmth or fashion.
[1] Coats typically have long sleeves and are open down the front, and closing by means of buttons, zippers, hook-and-loop fasteners (AKA velcro), toggles, a belt, or a combination of some of these.
Coat is one of the earliest clothing category words in English, attested as far back as the early Middle Ages.
[10] In the nineteenth century, the invention of the sewing machine paired with existing textile machinery increased the affordability of mass-produced, ready-to-wear clothing and helped spur the popularity of wearing coats and jackets.
[11] By the mid-twentieth century the terms jacket and coat became confused for recent styles; the difference in use is still maintained for older garments.
The length of an overcoat varies: mid-calf being the most frequently found and the default when current fashion is not concerned with hemlines.
Designs vary from knee-length to ankle-length, briefly fashionable in the early 1970s and known (to contrast with the usurped mini) as the "maxi".
Modern coats include the: General: Picken, Mary Brooks: The Fashion Dictionary, Funk and Wagnalls, 1957.