Inverness Cape-The History/Whys

[ForresterModern]

Older styles of capes and cloaks were simply designed and not specifically sized garments that utilized one (or occasionally two) front closure devices (clasps or ornate hook and ring) near but well below the neck, but whose front was otherwise unadorned and unfastened and relied on redundant hanging fabric overlap of the left and right front edges for coverage and warmth in the slower days of walking or riding in a carriage. Coats seem to have come into more common usage with true crossover and formal multiple button closures over time, probably because they could be made lighter and with more efficient use of fabric due to the more effective coverage of fixed, reliable, long rows of closure buttons, as well as more likely being more functionally suitable for actual necessary activities, such as loading rifles and such. Cloaks with their inherently redundant fabric nature likely simply got in the way of necessary functions over time.
Wool fabric has an inherent repellence to water at least in part due to its natural oils/lanolin content, expecially the relatively unwashed of olden days, something that was lost through the years as fabric manufacture became more refined and the natural oils got washed out in fabric preparation. Its remaining inherent water repellancy became less than ideal for all but the lightest of precipitation necessitating the later switch to more truly waterproof materials such as the oilskin of a cowboy's rain duster or rubberized Mackintosh type materials, eventually leading to modern gortex type materials. Cloaks in their latter days with their extra redundant wool fabric soaking up water and becoming heavy, but still warm, simply lost their original functional advantage over time, first to buttoned and subsequently zippered closure designs utilizing more waterpoof materials more efficiently. But IMHO along the way they lost a lot in style, another example of form versus function.