The chesterfield is a man’s overcoat with simple vertical seams, no side-back piece, and a velvet collar, usually in grey with black. The velvet collar is the defining feature of the chesterfield (as the fitted waist has since been lost) and is said to be based on the black strips that supporters of the old regime sewed on their jackets after the execution of Louis XVI in 1793.  This last bit, while quite romantic and appealing, is, alas, probably apocryphal. According to The Encyclopedia of Fashion, the coat was named after Phillip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, .  This seems somewhat improbable, Stanhope died in 1773.  As the first known use of the term was in the 1840s, it seems likely it refers to a 19th century Earl of Chesterfield, perhaps the 6th Earl of Chesterfield, who cut a bit of a swath in London the 1830s and 40s.  There are certainly references to it as a Lord Chesterfield coat, indicating a link between the Lord and the coat. The Chesterfield was interesting as …