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Posted
Wednesday, January 14, 2009 11:34 AM
| By
Julia Turner
Dahlia, I loved your piece imploring Elena Kagan to abandon the solicitor general's "silly" uniform, the morning coat. But our sartorially sophisticated language columnist, Jesse Sheidlower, e-mailed me to clarify that we shouldn't call it a "frock coat," as you did at one point in the piece. He writes: "A frock coat is not the same as a morning coat. They are both longish, but a frock coat is the same length all around, while a morning coat tapers evenly from the front to the rear tails. (A tailcoat, such as is worn with white tie, also has long rear tails, but the upper part cuts straight back to the long
tails.) A frock coat does not have tails." This explains so much that I never understood about arcane elements of formal menswear that I thought I'd share it with you all. Here's hoping we don't see too many of these at inauguration events next week!
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