Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Answered My Own Sherlock Question

Since the first episode of Sherlock, I've been intriqued by Dr. Watson's (Martin Freeman) military-style jacket. Because of the dark scenes, I couldn't figure out what exactly was on his shoulder. As it turns out, he had leather patches on both elbows and on only one shoulder. I posed a question to the internet about the jacket, not knowing that the show's costumes had already made a splash in England. Honestly, the only thing I noticed was that one jacket! Well, I got my answer from Sarah Arthur, costume designer for the series:

Where did Watson's coat come from? The black jacket is from Haversack... I wasn't overly keen on Watson's original coat from the pilot - but [the character] had just come out of the army so I knew where they were coming from. I wanted to keep him old school, with check shirts, but make it a little bit more interesting.

However, a clearer and lighter picture shows that the jacket isn't as I imagined in my head. It's a regular canvas shooting jacket (much like the Barn coats that L.L. Bean is famous for) with a corduroy collar and the three leather patches. I had imagined it in wool melton, with somewhat pea-coat styling. Oh well, it's not like I was going to buy it for myself anyway.

Note: I think I found it: Haversack Style: 470928, Black cotton shooting jacket with black corduroy collar, leather shoulder guard, two chest pockets, hammered press studs, button front, two large bellows pockets and buttoned, vented cuffs. £725.00 ($1,170 US)

1 comment:

Anne At Large said...

That first article kind of ruined some of the magic for me, it seems excessive that Sherlock and Watson should be running around in multi-thousand dollar costumes when they are ostensibly low on cash. I was hoping for something more Janie Bryant-esque where it's a little more ingenuity and not just piles of money and a great eye. Love that jacket on Martin Freeman though!

And I agree, the last ep. was a little bit disappointing, but there's no way they could have tied up all those loose ends in 90 minutes. And am I the only one who was irked that Sarah is just back like nothing ever happened and she didn't almost get killed in the last ep? I still think the first ep. was the strongest. But I have high hopes for Jim, I think that is some excellent casting...