Captain Jack Harkness Greatcoats Breakdown

The only thing more iconic than Captain Jack Harkness is his second skin, the long grey military coat he is seldom seen without. Whilst the Doctor's various outfits have had many breakdowns from many people there aren't nearly so many for Jack, hence here I'll be discussing in detail the intricacies of his unmistakable coat.

Cool outfit, needs a really long coat though.

Timeline:

Firstly, a brief history of the character. When Jack first met the Doctor and Rose in 1941 London he had stolen the identity of an American airman serving in the Royal Air Force who was killed in action on the 21st January of the same year. The real Jack Harkness was a Group Captain (although he introduced himself by the rank of simply "Captain" which a Group Captain wouldn't really do) as evidenced from four stripes of medium width rank braid, as also seen on Time Agent Jack's coats in Torchwood. The Time Agent seemingly liked the look so continued wearing an RAF greatcoat with military inspired clothes underneath for his time working for Torchwood.

RAF officer ranks against USAF equivalents (RAF Mildenhall, 2015)

However when the 51st century Jack first appeared on screens in Doctor Who Series 1 his greatcoat bore the rank of Squadron Leader (two medium stripes with one thin one in-between) which is two ranks below Group Captain. Further confusing things is that the official BBC summary for Torchwood S01E12 calls the 20th century Jack Harkness a "squadron leader", albeit in lower case letters. Given the number of small errors and general timeline difficulties this is most likely just a continuity error, the fake Jack Harkness was probably just mixing the alias' name alongside his Time Agency rank of Captain.

There is however one (rather unlikely) head-cannon explanation I can think of to reconcile these differences. The 20th century airman was promoted from Squadron Leader to Group Captain quite soon before his death (or was a Squadron Leader with only the acting rank of Group Captain) therefore when the 51st century time traveller stole his identity the records showed him only as a Squadron Leader. Given Jack's Time Agency rank of Captain, after he returned to Earth after his first resurrection he simply wore Group Captain rank braid to make it easier to go by the title "Captain" and also coincidentally ended up being accurate to the man who's identity he stole.

The Three Coats:

Although casual fans might not notice a wardrobe change but there are three main different greatcoats that were worn by Barrowman over the years. The lifespans of each of these coats are as follows:

Coat #1 - Doctor Who: Series 1

Coat #2 - Torchwood: Series 1, 2, and Children of Earth + Doctor Who: Series 3 and 4

Coat #3 - Torchwood: Miracle Day

Note that there've been dozens of coats made for the series, some have been modified by being distressed for specific episodes or shortened to make running in them easier however for the sake of simplicity the three named above are the main stylistically different ones. 

#1 - Blitz Coat:

In order to disguise the newly introduced Time Agent in contemporary dress the costume team used a genuine vintage RAF greatcoat as part of Barrowman's costume. This made sense as being used for only one story-line it was not an item that would realistically need to make many expensive and identical doubles of. Greatcoats are no longer used as part of main uniform within the Royal Air Force though are still used on certain ceremonial occasions. As a result of this there're plenty of second hand ones on the market that can vary radically in price, from two figures for a surplus shop bargain to four figures for a brand new one.

Jack's vintage Squadron Leader greatcoat.

So does that mean that any old RAF greatcoat is totally screen accurate? The answer: were it so easy. Unfortunately, I've yet to see a greatcoat that perfectly matches the screen used one for several reasons. The most obvious issue is that greatcoats vary in design depending on the rank (enlisted or officer) and also to an extent the year they were made, for example newer officer's coats typically feature only a half belt and roll back cuffs. If one manages to find a greatcoat with full belt and stylistically the same it almost certainly won't be identical to Jack's.

The thick fabric and lack of stiffening mean this coat's collar is popped only this way, the subsequent coat's collar was popped in multiple different ways.

In order to understand why this is one must first understand uniforms and the military in general. Officers have to buy their own uniforms and are given a set uniform allowance per year to help pay for it. Some officers choose to buy their clothes from a nearby supplier that creates off-the-peg garments for a reasonable price, then they can be adjusted to one's specific figure as necessary. Alternately some items might be gotten second hand from other personnel. Many officers however choose to go to a private tailor and have a uniform created specifically for them, these pieces are known as "private purchase".

Name a more iconic trio... I'll wait.

Now it's important to note that military uniform is not necessarily truly uniform, above truly minuscule scales no two things in the universe are. Private purchase pieces often feature a bit more variation in design than ones produced en-masse as each one is made by a tailor for a specific client. I'll likely be going into this in greater detail in a future blog post. Jack's coat features a combination of small but unusual details that make me believe it was a private purchase piece. Broadly speaking, there are three main styles of RAF greatcoat though there is variation based on year, manufacturer, etc. (I've even seen some with variations such as an outer chest pocket and leather buttons) but these are by far the most common designs:

• Enlisted ranks wear a simple "other airman" greatcoat, typically with no shoulder boards, no belt or only a real half-belt, no cuff buttons, and little in the way of lining. They may also be generally a little shorter than other kinds.
• Commissioned officers wear a coat with detachable shoulder boards, full belt, and overlapping fabric three button cuffs (occasionally two). These are typically only half-lined but some were fully lined down the skirt area as well.
• The previous design was phased out in the post-war period and replaced with a slightly different officer's coat. These typically have roll back cuffs, sewn in shoulder boards, rear half-belt with buttons, central rear box pleat, and full lining (although half-lining isn't uncommon).

Here the lack of lining in the coat's skirt is clearly visible.

Military uniform can be broadly dated by its buttons, assuming they're original to the piece. There are two main crowns in the Crown Jewels, both can be used interchangeably for coronations etc. depending on the monarch's personal preference, the armed forces typically use whichever is currently in favour for their buttons. The St Edward's Crown was introduced on certain military buttons in the late Victorian era up until 1901. After Queen Victoria's death the crown was changed to the Imperial Crown of India and used between 1901 and 1952 for the reigns of Kings Edward VII, George V, and George VI. Once Elizabeth II became Queen in 1952 the buttons were changed to the St Edward's Crown again. As a result of this precedent of preference, the St Edward's Crown is informally as the Queen's Crown and the Imperial Crown of India is referred to as the King's Crown.

RAF buttons, King's Crown (left) and Queen's Crown (right).

Now Captain Jack's coat fits into the second category of greatcoat in that it is an older full belted officer's design, however there are many small details that make it unique. Below is a list of all the small details that vary between coats to look out for in a Jack spec coat:

• Belt - a full belt with functioning buckle, however Jack's belt is held in place with belt loops. This is extremely unusual as standard practice was to sew them to the rear of the body so that it couldn't be separated or lost. Jack typically keeps his coat's belt fastened hanging from the rear.
• Shoulder boards - although all officer's coats have shoulder boards, the variety that are sewn into the shoulder seam like on Jack's coat are almost unheard of in this era of officer's greatcoat. The rank braid sewn on is that of Squadron Leader.
• Pleat - the central inverted box pleat is opens up to make movement in the coat more natural. This design feature is usually only seen on the newer roll back cuff design of officer's coat.
• Cuffs - three button cuffs. Jack's are purely decorative as there is no fabric overlap underneath them meaning they are non-functional. Although three buttons is the most common style of this type of coat they almost always have overlapping fabric beneath.
• Collar and lapels - the topstitching along the inside of the collar and lapels on Jack's coat terminates around the gorge at a 45 degree angle, the standard design was to use a right angle for the end of the topstitching.
• Lining - half lined (upper body only) in grey. This one of the few potential variables about Jack's coat that isn't an obtusely uncommon style.
• Buttons - King's Crown (pre-1952) staybrite RAF buttons.

If one can find an older style officer's greatcoat (which is the least common of the three general styles but not overly rare) it is it almost certainly won't have every single one of the small variable features that the screen used coat had. The best option here is to search military surplus shops (like Ianto did in Children of Earth) for a cheap and very similar full belted style coat. A word about greatcoats, they are excellent quality, having cost up to four figures when they were new, but are impractical to use outside of cold weather as the extremely thick wool makes them incredibly warm and heavy. For those who live in North America an RCAF greatcoat might be a more viable option as Canada's Air Force greatcoats are identical to the UK's save for sew on "Canada" patches on the arms and RCAF on the buttons.

Giving off Dr. Strangelove vibes.

This is the most historically accurate of all Jack's coats, primarily because the majority of the outfit was literally just old pieces of RAF uniform. As a result of this it is the easiest of the three coats to go out and buy as a piece of military surplus providing one makes a few small accuracy concessions. It is common to small variations in the exact shade of wool, lining fabrics can vary a lot in weave an colour depending on what the tailor had in stock and what the officer wanted.

#2 - Classic Torchwood Coat:

When the new spin-off series was greenlit it became necessary to create multiple copies of Captain Jack's coat. Naturally a quick coat swap is essential whilst filming if something happens to the hero coat (accidental damage, button falling off, etc.), though some were distressed for specific episodes, made shorter to avoid tripping over for running scenes, made with preshrunk fabric for wet scenes, and so on.

Military greatcoats are too heavy to blow around quite as heroically as this.

Ray Holman, the Torchwood costume designer for Series 1 to 3, used the vintage Doctor Who greatcoat as the main design inspiration for the new Torchwood coat, keeping the fit and most of the design details the same. However, there were a few changes made:

Firstly, John Barrowman apparently suffers from a "wool allergy" (more on this a bit later on) so to prevent discomfort throughout the long filming hours the fabric was switched from wool to cotton moleskin. This cotton based fabric is significantly lighter than the thick wool used in genuine greatcoats, and the thickness is quite apparent when directly comparing areas of the coats such as the lapels and shoulder boards. The thinner nature means it also creases more readily and is susceptible to blowing heroically in the wind. As a result of the thinner fabric Jack pops the collar of this coat differently to the thicker wool one, presumably malleable stiffening wire was placed in the new coat's collar to help it keep its shape.

The coat is made to be large enough to fit comfortably over a full uniform.

Secondly, the button placement of the coat was changed subtly to give a slightly different look. Authentic greatcoats have a button placement that caused progressively more overlap the higher up the coat one goes. This V shaped button placement was brought a little more in-line for the Torchwood coat, resulting in narrower lapels and collar that did not cover the top two rows of buttons like an actual issued coat meaning all ten frontal buttons were far more visible. British Military greatcoats have the shanks of the left column of buttons recessed into the coat so as to make that side's button tops flush with the fabric, as they are designed to be buttoned at all times this ensures that both sides of buttons sit snugly and symmetrically against the fabric rather than the wearer's left buttons appearing more loose. As Jack wears his coat unbuttoned nearly all the time the buttons attached so that both sides have non-recessed shanks, this is also the case with the Miracle Day coat however the Blitz coat naturally has recessed shank buttons along the left side. In the picture below you can see that Jack's left hand side of buttons hang very slightly lower than the right when the coat is buttoned up due to the lack of recessed shanks.

My genuine pre-1952 greatcoat compared to Jack's classic Torchwood coat.

Thirdly, the new coat was fully lined from top to bottom in grey satin, unlike the original coat which was only lined around the upper body. This was presumably done to give a more professional finish. 

The central back pleat opens up to allow greater freedom of movement.

Finally, there were various other small changes made. The collar and lapels of this coat feature the more conventional right angled finish around the gorge. The shoulder boards have an line of topstitching on the top near the edges of the board. The rank braid on the new coat is also changed to that of Group Captain. I believe it's a little longer than the Blitz coat too, probably for more a more dramatic appearance.

The only time the all buttons were used were for the Series 1 photoshoots.

Overall, this is the coat that most people think of when they think of Captain Jack Harkness due to the amount of screentime it had. Although the changes to the coat mean it's not a historically accurate greatcoat, it is however close enough to be very convincing as a genuine piece of uniform. Would a RAF officer be reprimanded for wearing a coat that breaks certain regulations? If they weren't in the public eye then probably not, greatcoats have a fair bit of variation anyway and once you're a Group Captain there aren't many people higher up who are going to discipline a you for potential minor uniform infractions. It depends on how close the moleskin's colour is to the official RAF blue (a bluish grey, the exact shade has changed subtly over the years). For a lower ranking officer or one going on parade this might be a little different though. A moleskin greatcoat wouldn't be overly useful anyway as it's not warm enough for the intended purpose.

For many people, this is more or less the definitive Captain Jack look.

#3 - Miracle Day Coat:

When Torchwood was brought back for a fourth series back in 2011 many changes were made to the show, Jack's iconic coat was no exception. The new costume designer, Shawna Trpcic, created a brand new coat for Barrowman wear for Miracle Day, in order to create this coat she marathoned all three previous series before drawing up the new design which was given the thumbs up from John and Russel.

Captain Jack wielding a 10.5 inch M4A1 with S.I.R. rail system and various attachments.

The reason for the redesign was a result of several factors, firstly Barrowman's weight loss as a result of an extended stage tour meant that the older style of greatcoat that is designed to be very comfortably worn over a tunic would've looked too loose on him. In addition, the hotter American climate necessitated a more slim fitting and lightweight coat to avoid overheating. Finally, the new costume designer probably wanted to leave her mark on Jack's wardrobe and create her own homage to the classic greatcoat.

The new coat features a more modern profile.

There were two main variations of this coat produced for the series. The warmer scenes used a coat made out of a lightweight cashmere fabric (a wool and cashmere blend of approximately even ratio) to keep John cool and on colder sets a thicker wool "hero" coat was used. Given the coats change from scene to scene and are canonically supposed to be the same coat they're being combined into one singular Miracle Day coat for the purposes of this guide. The lightweight one can be differentiated by looking at how easily the fabric creases. The fabrics were selected by Shawna from swatch books and appear to be slightly bluer in colour than the previous coats, without direct comparison it's hard to say definitively. Both Miracle Day coats used the same pattern and an iridescent deep red rayon lining.

One of the clear shots of the lining from the Radio Times cover.

You may be wondering, "How did Barrowman wear a wool coat if he's allergic to it?" I'll break down the scientific reasons in this paragraph, if you're not interested just skip this bit. Essentially, a "wool allergy" as most people know it is not an allergy at all, an allergy requires that the body's immune system reacting abnormally to a foreign substance. An extremely small percentage of people may suffer from a lanolin allergy, which is a natural oil found in unprocessed wool. This is a true wool allergy, most modern wool processing techniques remove nearly all the lanolin from the wool fibres, however people with a lanolin allergy will react unfavourably to raw wool or wool that has been processed in a simple and unusual way that does not remove the lanolin. What Barrowman likely has is an acute cutaneous irritation that comes from thick and broken/stiff wool fibres (lanolin contributes to wool's softness). Think of it this way, if you've ever worn an itchy woolly jumper you know how irritating it is, Barrowman's sensitive skin is just significantly more susceptible to this irritation, which is not an allergy as such but can easily be mistaken for one. Depending on the quality of the wool fibres (e.g. merino wool is too fine to cause any real irritation) and the weave depends on how the skin reacts to it. So John can wear certain wools, providing they're not irritating on his skin.

A good shot showing the more tailored arms, as well as the rear belt and opened central pleat.

In terms of design changes the coat was created using a modified overcoat pattern rather than a true military pattern by a tailor by the name of "di Stefano", the button placement on this coat was more Y shaped as the lowest three rows of buttons were equidistant to the edge. This new coat had a large amount of fabric taken out of the body, giving it a significantly slimmer fit compared to the previous coats. The silhouette was also generally straighter fitting down the body, authentic greatcoats have a more tapered waist area. This removal of material meant the shoulder boards had to be significantly cut down as a result of the narrower shoulders, the inner topstiching design on the boards was carried over from the previous coat. The collar and lapels were also significantly changed from the previous two coats, the longer collar resulted in a lower gorge, in addition the collar was laid flat the entire series. Unusually, Queen's Crown buttons were used on this coat instead of WWII era King's Crown buttons, this may just have been because these buttons are more modern and hence are easier to find in number.

Good view of the revamped proportions.

Overall, this coat isn't as loved by the community as the classic Torchwood coat due to the less historically accurate redesign and mixed reception to Miracle Day, it's more of a 21st century take on a 20th century piece of uniform. I quite like this coat though, although the previous one will always be the most iconic Captain Jack coat I think Shawna did a great job in creating an evolution to the classic design. It was quite plausible that in the time between Children of Earth and Miracle Day Jack lost his old coat and had this new one made in spirit of the original, although this theory is completely torpedoed by the coat's appearance in the 1928 flashbacks of the younger Jack.

Far less billowing fabric than the classic coat, compare this to the earlier picture of Jack in handcuffs.

Replicas:

There are several options when it comes to obtaining a decent Captain Jack coat, whilst none are completely perfect many of them are very viable:

Vintage RAF Greatcoat:

This is, in my opinion, the best option for doing a Doctor Who or classic Torchwood outfit. Although not perfect it is closest in design to the first two Jack coats. They vary drastically in price depending on the seller however they can usually be found cheaper than the AbbyShot version.

AbbyShot:

Whilst this offering certainly gets the look across I don't consider it to be as viable an option as an actual military greatcoat. The general design is closer to the Miracle Day coat (see fit and shoulder boards) though with collar and lapels that aren't quite accurate to any Jack coat. The outer fabric is a synthetic material though gets the look of the classic Torchwood coat across fairly well (though is too dark, see below) although the lining is blue for some reason. Many people will find the AbbyShot coat too short compared to a full length greatcoat.

An AbbyShot compared directly against a classic Torchwood coat (Instagram: @scarecrow_sutton).

High End Replica:

This is the only viable option for a truly accurate coat, given the Blitz coat is basically unique as uniform goes and the other two are fully custom. The Miracle Day coat would be easier to replicate given that its pattern is more modern and tailors would be more familiar with the general cut. Personally, although they haven't made one yet, I think Baron Boutique would probably do a decent job on a Miracle Day coat, though obviously the more expensive individual tailors out there would probably do a more accurate job.

Oriental Cosplay Sites:

Although these aren't the most accurate items they are usually reasonable value for money. The examples I've seen have generally been not too dissimilar from the Miracle Day coat in terms of pattern, although they all usually make the same mistakes such as the gorge being too high, pockets not angled enough, etc.

Summary:

That's everything I have to say about Captain Jack's coat, the more pictures one finds and looks at the better one will understand the differences, to those still curious I recommend finding as many high quality photos as possible. Although the subtle differences take a lot of explaining this simple table is a decent basic guide to differentiate the coats:

Coat Name	Costume Designer	Fabric	Lining	Buttons	Rank	Fit
Blitz	Lucinda Wright	Wool	Grey (half-lined)	King’s Crown	Squadron Leader	Loose
Classic Torchwood	Ray Holman	Cotton moleskin	Grey (full- lined)	King’s Crown	Group Captain	Loose
Miracle Day	Shawna Trpcic	Wool (Hero) Cashmere wool blend (Lightweight)	Iridescent deep red (full-lined)	Queen’s Crown	Group Captain	Tailored

With a bit of luck maybe Captain Jack will return to our screens sometime in the not too distant future. What kind of coat would you like to see for number four? The re-adoption of one of these three styles, or another entirely new RAF inspired greatcoat?