Cosplaying Capaldi’s Doctor

The new Doctor’s costume is revealed; let the cosplay begin!

Costumer Howard Burden’s vision for our favorite Time Lord pairs a navy blue Crombie coat with red lining with what initially may appear to be black pants, but according to the BBC are also dark blue. With a white shirt and blue vest, the looks is completed by black Dr. Marten shoes.

Capaldi’s coat is by Crombie, a 200-year-old British luxury brand whose coat style has become almost synonymous with the brand name. As of this writing, their site (http://www.crombie.co.uk/) is down, presumably thanks to their new fanbase and a pile of Americans who never heard of Crombie before now.

A similar Crombie coat is available on eBay right now. You’d be passable and in the right designer with the red lining, but with not quite the right pockets or collar. This Chester by Chester Barry is actually quite closer! Alas, not an actual Crombie. Nordstrom sells another similar coat, though still not Crombie and no red lining. Finally, there’s another non-Crombie one with red lining available on Amazon, but it’s still not quite right. The only thing left is to make it yourself!

Tailoring a wool coat isn’t for the faint of heart, and I can’t even offer you a perfect pattern for the task, so this one’s up to the advanced costumers. A few possibilities to start:

• The out-of-print Vogue 7988 is a really good start, though you’d need to scrap those pockets and put in the right ones.
• For patterns still easily available, Simplicity 1806 will get you in the neighborhood, just by being a general coat with a collar, but the seams and button spacing are all wrong–you’ll have a lot of work to do.
• Vogue 8890 will also get you close, but you’ll need to lengthen, change the shape of the hem, and change the pockets.

There are a few things we’ll be able to see better when we get more pictures. For one, the precise shape of the collar, which in the one available photo is not entirely visible. Second, I want to see the pants better. I’m not sure how much better, since they’re pretty well-revealed. Perhaps what I actually want is for the Doctor not to be wearing pleated (gah!), baggy-crotched pants that then taper around the ankles. I’m telling myself this is an illusion of his “watch me make the Statue of Liberty disappear” pose in this photo, and they’re not really that horrible.

Finally, the shoes. The closest currently available Dr. Martens are the 3989 brogues. If you look at the broguing pattern on the sides of the shoes, they’re not the exact same ones.

Corrections, additions, and contributions welcome! Comment with your suggestions for duplicating the new Doctor’s look.