THE END OF THE FROCK COAT

Evening Post, Issue 86, 11 April 1936, Page 21

THE END OF THE FROCK COAT

'' HP I'°c^c.°^ t *s as dead as lhe proverbial Dodo—killed by the «! J. King's dicision to banish it from the backs of household " . officials, Sciys the London correspondent of the "Sydney Mornh. ing Heraia." A fe.w surviyors from the Victorian epoch may indeed ;: continue,to wear it on State occasions, but as a recognised form of £ regalia it will soon be forgotten, like:oilier;instruments of torture. - As an1 oldla.dy remarked the other day tome: "My dear, lam de- -, ; Hghtqd that the King has been so sensible. Nowadays men have to travel on buses, whatever their income. Can you imagine the..tire-. some job.of getting out of a bus with everyone sitting'on your frock - coat? Dress in years gone by meant rank-:—it stamped you. Today . anything beyond neatness means that a man has nothing else to do. I Men have ceased to be peacocks." : I And so they, have,■ though .whether they have improved their - prospects is open to question. - ' The traditional palace rule was that all gentlemen-in-waiting ; should wear a frock coat when in the presence of the Sovereign. ; Queen Victoria, King Edward, and even King George were terribly - strict about it. But the new King is not only of another generation, '. but he is in the vanguard of that generation. He is a modern of I the moderns. What was good enough for the people of yesterday ■ is not necessarily good enough for him. Hence his decree that the - out-moded frock ( coat shall give place to the smart and elegant " morning coat, or cutaway, and hence, too, the relief of politicians ; who will no longer be obliged to patronise a certain Covent - Garden firm which hires out clothes for formal occasions. Lord Salisbury, who. visited Australia with the Empire Parlia- : mentary Delegation, is now almost the only well-known public ; man who "sticks" to-the frock coat. He always wears it in the. - House of Lords and at ceremonial functions.- For in that he - follows a confirmed family habit. It is on record that a Foreign I Office messenger being sent to Hatfield, the family "seat," to de- ; v liver a letter into the hands of the present Lord's father, found -' him shooting rabbits—in a frock coat. ► It is a matter of sartorial interest that the, cut of the frock I coat has scarcely altered since the sixties, when every male per- ► son who was anybody at all adopted it as a symbol of respectability ► —that is to day, of superiority.