There’s an English country dance ball coming up in Syracuse this spring, and I’ve started work on a Regency costume for it. Not wanting to sink vast sums of money into it — and not having much in the way of sewing skills (yet) — I’ve been looking at varied vendors from Samson Historicals to Etsy to AliExpress. No, really, I found some plausible looking trousers on AliExpress for $33. AE is a crap shoot generally, but the reviews are mostly favorable, and I later found the same trousers ($3 more but with free shipping!) on Amazon Marketplace also with mostly favorable reviews, and I figured why not. Apparently they ship with a very long inseam, and I’ll need to shorten them, but I can do that.

The problem is the coat. I don’t necessarily need one, I could just settle for shirt and waistcoat, but a tailcoat would be nice. And no, my sewing skills do not even extend to modifying a modern tailcoat as some people have done. Maybe I could find someone local who’d be willing to do it, but I don’t know of any.

There aren’t any plausible Regency tailcoats on AliExpress, sadly.

There are lots of them on Etsy, though. Some even sell for under $100, though $150 to $300 seems more the typical range. Taking a glance, they’re wool, custom made or so they claim, they have five star reviews, what could go wrong?

Well.

One thing you start to notice is many of these vendors are using identical photos to illustrate their products. Do a Google image search of this, for instance:

A man in Regency attire walking down a wooded lane on a misty morning

— you’ll find it’s used on dozens of Etsy and eBay listings. Sometimes you find the model from one vendor’s images photoshopped onto a different background for another vendor. Even when the photos are unique, the coats often aren’t; they’re at best working from the same patterns, if not getting the coats from the same sources.

Because these Etsy vendors aren’t the tailors. “FashenPoint” is owned by Muhammad Muzzamil of Pakistan. “LusonBee” is owned by Mr shahid of France. “RegencyTailor”: summra, United Kingdom. Most of them have been on Etsy for less than a year. Many of them ship from Pakistan. (Nothing in the listings say anything about prepaid tariffs, so probably the buyer is on the hook for those.) The ones who don’t?

'Production partners / ZairaTailored makes this item with help from / Bespoke Historical & Tailored Attire by Zaira Tailored in Collaboration with Acier Int., Siālkot, Pakistan'

Shipped from New York or London or Virginia, but made in Pakistan, every time.

Take a closer look at the customer reviews. Most of them are five stars and effusive praise. But for every one of these vendors I looked at, scattered among them were horror stories:

One star review: 'The coat is not the one pictured in the listing and is really badly made. The lapels and the collar are significantly smaller than shown. The sleeves don't sit smoothly in the shoulder holes. The lower vent on the back is so badly sewn that it won't stay closed, but instead the inside projects out like he's pooping fabric. The back vent is also poorly sewn, I can't figure out a way to get the 'vent' to stay inside once it's on, so it looks like a sort of fabric spine sticking out: the lining for some reason has a back vent divot in it that isn't attached to and doesn't line up with the back vent, which doesn't help it sit flat. The fabric is terrible quality.'

And they often mention no success in getting the vendor to make it right:

One star review: 'I appreciate Etsy to honor my claim. The tailcoat was completely different than the picture on the website: different color, different style, different size! And it was used, not new! It did not even have a manufacturing tag. There was nothing sent with the coat. No return address, no, invoice, no order number, no item description, nothing! In addition, the seller refused to send me a return address and a return code! Worse experience ever!'

And there are instances where vendors who say “Ships from New York” or whatever have customers complaining it was shipped from Pakistan and they had to pay the tariff.

The impression I get is that someone somewhere sets up an Etsy account and contracts with someone(s) — maybe a sweatshop — in Pakistan to do the sewing. And that the Pakistanis usually do a decent enough job, but sometimes not, or there are delivery problems, and the vendors couldn’t care less.

That’s the favorable view. But some vendors seem worse than that. I found two that list “Custom Made Victorian Pants”, and their photos are identical to the ones on the $33 AliExpress listing. They’re charging $125 and $140. Plus tariff (shipping from Pakistan). Maybe by “custom made” they mean they’ll hem them for you.

After scouring Etsy, I found one or two tailcoat vendors who seem much more legit, and who are charging something like $1400. (I didn’t look at them closely enough to see if the legit impression held up.) I found exactly one vendor who:

  • Is located in, and ships from, California
  • Has been on Etsy for 15 years
  • Has hundreds of 4- and 5-star reviews, and one 1-star review from someone who wasn’t happy because some buttons came detached
  • And has three Regency tailcoats, two in wool and silk, one in linen and rayon, custom made for $395 to $495.

Is she the real deal? I can’t say for sure. But she seems a lot less sketchy than almost all the rest.

(I also found a vendor in Vancouver, Canada, 16 years on Etsy, who doesn’t list any tailcoats but is making me a shirt.)

Outside of Etsy, Historical Emporium has two Regency coat designs in several colors. They’re cotton with polyester lining and sell for $200. Made, for all I know, in Pakistan, or not, but less scammy looking. Samson Historical has what looks like one design in two versions, wool and linen, in any color you want as long as it’s black or navy, for $365. Again, I can’t see anything specifying where they’re made.

My heart says Denise Pieracci. My wallet says Historical Emporium. My brain says keep looking.

And then there’s YouTube sewing tutorials.

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