Cosplay Sky - season 16 Frock Coat

After brining you my magnum opus costume index for The Fourth Doctor, I thought it was time to get back on the reviews of replica coats available around the internet.
Today the season 16 Frock Coat offering from Cosplay Sky.

Based in China, Cosplay Sky has been making costumes for over five years and specialise in a lot of Anime and genre films and tv shows. Their style can be very angular with broad lapels and flared skirts.

Now, having made my own replica of this coat, I can immediately see a number of serious shortcomings in the cut of this coat. Some are quite picky, but others are more obvious.

Ecru Brown Long
Trench Coat

Price as of July 2013 - $179.99

It does become a problem of where to start with this, as the coat is such a anime caricature of what should be one of Tom’s iconic Frock Coats.

The whole body of the coat seems excessively elongated, even down to the cuff piping being twice s high up the sleeve as it should be.
The waist is quite tailored, which only accentuates the disproportions of the coat.

The piping around the edges of the lapels and pocket flaps are not the right colour. It needs to be a real dark brown (almost black) rather than the milk chocolate colour used here.

The fabric used doesn’t really look to be quite right, but of the three season 16 Frock Coats I have reviewed this is almost the best colour of the bunch - ironic as it is without doubt the worst cut of what’s on offer.

The buttons on the back are set too far apart, and the back vent is exactly central, where it should be off centre and have a slight overlap.

The pocket flaps are very rectangular and don’t have the slight flare of the real thing.

But to add to things, one of the outer pockets is completely missing!
The lower left-hand pocket has been omitted, and remaining pocket left is too close to the front and to big enough.

And to confuse things even more, two large flap-less pockets are added at the back. All a bit of a mess.

The waistline pockets are too big and crash the buttons. They should be close, but not that close.
The buttons could be moved, and should be in a slight diagonal line, diverging at the top - but this is the one and only practical fix on a coat that is frankly way to wide of the mark to be not worth the effort.

Shocking.

Cosplay Sky - season 12 corduroy jacket

This month in my costume reviews I’m looking at the season 12 shooting jacket offered by Cosplay Sky.

Based in China, Cosplay Sky has been making costumes for over five years and specialise in a lot of Anime and genre films and tv shows. Their style can be very angular with broad lapels and flared skirts.

Dark Red Corduroy Trench Coat

Price as of April 2013 - $150

The CosplaySky take on the season 12 shooting jacket, is a stark contrast to the version Baron Boutique I previously reviewed.

The immediate difference is the colour. Where the Baron Boutique jacket is way too light, this is way too dark.

The colour chosen is a deep burgundy rather than a more screen accurate burnt orange colour. This reminds me more of the season 18 greatcoat, which I’ll be reviewing in due course.

The pocket are correctly constructed, but are all way too big, boxy and angular to look right.

The original jacket has a shabby, baggy feel to it and this is all just too crisp and sharp for my liking.

The pockets are correctly trimmed along their tops, but it is too wide and bold as well as the wrong colour.
With the jacket too dark and the trim too light and wide, it makes them stand out too much.

The jacket has grey elbow patches which are by far a much better match to the real jacket compared to the Baron Boutique version, but they look to be fabric, possibly a felt rather than leather. I may be wrong - please correct me if you have one of these jackets and can confirm it to me.

There is an interpretation of the sleeve pocket, but it looks to be too large in my view.

The one part of the jacket that to me is seriously lacking is the back. The belted back is very unflattering and lacks the looseness of the real thing.
There are the gusseted sides to the back, but they just don’t look right and the overall effect of the back is that it is more fitted than it should be.

So, looking beyond the colour, how well does the jacket look?

Well the only way I can describe how I see it is to describe it as a caricature of the jacket.

All the details are there - the flapped box pockets; the belted back; grey elbow patches; the gusseted rear; the curious flapped sleeve pocket - but they are thicker, bolder, wider than they should be.

You can see the cutter of this jacket is more used to making the replica Anime costumes seen around comic conventions the breath of the US, with their angular lines and shapes.
This should be the original shabby-chic look The Doctor is known for. His slightly disheveled appearance that masks a brilliant intellect.

Cosplay Sky - season 13 Frock Coat

I’ve recently been looking over the Fourth Doctor costumes on offer from Baron Boutique. This month I thought I’d start to have a look at the options from Cosplay Sky.

Based in China, Cosplay Sky has been making costumes for over five years and specialise in a lot of Anime and genre films and tv shows. Their style can be very angular with broad lapels and flared skirts.

Ecru Brown Long Trench Coat Suit

Price as of Feb 2013 - $189.99

This coat is a replica of the tweed Frock Coat Tom Baker first wore in The Android Invasion.

My first point of review is always the fabric for a coat, and from the looks of the photos, they have used a wool tweed material not unlike the Donegal on Matt Smith’s series five jacket.

Although not a screen accurate match for this coat, it certainly goes someway to reflect the drape and feel of the original coat.

The collar looks to be made from velvet rather than the thunder-cord corduroy on the screen worn coat, but it is in the right area for colour so not so bad.

The buttons on the front are a bit out of position, being in two vertical lines, rather than diverging at the top.
The choice of buttons isn’t too bad, though the cuff ones should have been a lot smaller - they look very clunky and draw the eye too much.

The cuffs themselves are oversized and misinterpreted. They have been done like the cuffs on the Sixth Doctor Frock Coat, but should be flush with the surface of the sleeve.

The elbow patches on the sleeves look very large and almost take up half the length of the arm!

The back of the coat seems to be lacking the princess seams and the buttons are too widely spaced.
The back split is dead centre, which isn’t right, as it should under and overlap.

The large pockets on the back of the coat are placed way too high and far too close to the centre. Quite how you would reach to put anything in them is beyond me.

Lengthwise the coat looks to be about right, with a decent flare to the skirt, though the lower back could have been more nipped to emphasis this.

The lining is a pale silverish blue, which actually isn’t far off the correct colour.

All in all this isn’t such a bad coat. I’m surprised as to how it looks, compared to some other the other coats Cosplay Sky offer, which I shall be reviewing over the coming months.

Check back each month for a new review.