Donkey jacket

A donkey jacket is a medium-length workwear jacket, typically made of unlined black or dark blue thick Melton woollen fabric, with the shoulders back and front reinforced and protected from rain with leather or PVC panels.

Originating in the United Kingdom, the garment is untailored at the waist such that it hangs down straight from the shoulders.

That same year, Key designed a new type of coat made of a hard-wearing material developed for those who were working on the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal.

[1] The donkey jacket is derived from the wool sack coat worn by workers in the 19th century, and the Oxford English Dictionary references the term as first used in 1929: "one with leather shoulders and back".

The donkey jacket is regarded as typical of the British manual labourer and trade unionist as well as members of the political left.

A donkey jacket with PVC panels
Sack coat: the precursor to the donkey jacket worn from the mid Victorian era onwards by workers and soldiers. These did not have the leather shoulder patches of the modern work jacket. (Caption refers to Boston Corbett and John Wilkes Booth .)