Ulster coat

It was commonly worn by coachmen who would be seated outdoors in bad weather for long periods, but needed to use their arms to hold reins.

[2] Prior to the inception of the Ulster coat in the first half of the nineteenth century, the greatcoat or surtout was the main component of a gentleman's wardrobe.

Whilst fashionable at the time, these garments proved to be very cumbersome for travel due to the heavy lengths of overlapping cloth involved in creating the silhouette.

In the Sherlock Holmes short story Blue Carbuncle for example, Watson recounts that: “It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped cravats about our throats.” It has been used in a great many late-Victorian costume dramas since.

For example, the title character of Madeline wore an ulster coat as a nod to Sherlock Holmes while doing detective work.

A 1903 fashion plate of an Ulster, showing how the forearms can be brought under the cape.
Sherlock Holmes wearing an ulster coat in one of the original Strand Magazine illustrations of The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
Depiction of Jack the Ripper taken from a series of images from the Illustrated London News for 13 October 1888 carrying the overall caption, "With the Vigilance Committee in the East End" . This specific image is entitled "A Suspicious Character" . The frontmost follower wears a deerstalker hat and an Ulster coat