a1tiptop said:

Thanks Admin! I’m sure I’ve seen something like this insignia before. Is it an American thing to do with hospitals or doctors or something? (—)

This particular symbol is the greek word Caduceus apparently. But I don’t know whether there’s a more commonly used name.

“…of Mercury (Roman) and the Karykeion of Hermes (Greek)

Many “medical” organisations use a symbol of a short rod entwined by two snakes and topped by a pair of wings, which is actually the caduceus or magic wand of the Greek god Hermes (Roman Mercury), messenger of the gods, inventor of (magical) incantations, conductor of the dead and protector of merchants and thieves. It is derived from the Greek karykeion = “herald's staff”, itself based on the word “eruko” meaning restrain, control.

The link between the caduceus of Hermes (Mercury) and medicine seems to have arisen by the seventh century A.D., when Hermes had come to be linked with alchemy…”

Quoted from this page: http://www.drblayney.com/Asclepius.html#hermes

If I may speculate, I think the caduceus on Dr Horribles first coat probably  isn´t there because it´s his special symbol, but rather because he is a self styled low-budget villain and has taken (stolen?) a perfectly ordinary hospital coat to use as his uniform.  

As others have pointed out, this style of “white coat” is called a “Howie” and a google search brings up retailers form all over the world.

Gote said:

Yeah, I’m curious about the difference between an L and an L tall, it might be nothing but I’ve decided to email them just to see.

I just spoke to ray.

Longer sleeves are all.

He said that he would start making tall ones, though, if there was demand…

I managed to buy the following on e-bay:

I searched for Vintage Dentist's Jacket.  This is the only one that came up, and it's obviously going to involve some alterations (longer sleeves, long front and back), but it does appear to have the right setup for the shoulder buttons (currently uses snaps) and is generally closer to the Dr. Horrible coat than most others I've seen.

So, I guess just occassionally check on ebay and see what comes up.  Also, since it seems like this style isn't really current anymore, it might be worth while to check out local (or online) costume shops to see what they have.

Anyway, good luck everyone.

Admin said:

Are the sleeves longer or just covered by the gloves?

Watch the following: http://youtube.com/watch?v=14ZSfuheP9Y
And at 0:51 you’ll see Horrible without the gloves. The coat’s sleeves are deffinately longer. (Plus is has some great pictures you might not have seen throughout!)

Indeed, the four buttons down the side are key.  Some people also seem to have overlooked the half-belt in the back, and the small panel on the right side.

For the symbol, there is an interesting bit of trivia in addition to the origins of the winged staff — Dracunculus medinensis, the Guinea worm, is a parasite that is removed from humans primarily by trapping the head in a forked stick and winding it around the stick over a period of hours or days.  The snake(s) wrapped around a stick originate from this procedure.

Hubby bought the Mad Scientist coat linked from the costumes page and we’re going to modify that. It is REALLY long so I am going to hem it, possibly split the sides a little (Dr. Horrible’s coat has an opening on the side), and then with the extra fabric make a pocket on the front and make the band in the back to gather it. Oh, and I’m going to replace the buttons with white/off-white ones.

This is all good in theory, but unfortunately I’ll be hand-sewing and we’ll see how things go. Also, we only have a week before it needs to be done (we’re still waiting on the goggles, boots, and gloves to arrive! They need to hurry hurry hurry!), so wish us luck!

Well I threw this post up on the costume page comments but I figured I might as well post it here so enjoy!

“Alright I’ve been looking at the coat pretty closely and I think I have something figured out. (If your’re interested “Slipping” is an amazing section to get reference for the coat!)
Luckily what I noticed makes it alot easier to make this thing on your own! If you look closely at the wrap around front, specifically at the collar, shoulder, and around the arm, all it is, is the exact same piece that would be there if the front were a whole piece, the only difference is that instead of the overlap that joins to the back piece, it’s folded under and makes a seam. (To put it another way it follows the seams of where the back meets the front exactly) As for attaching it to the under piece on the front, there are buttons along the shoulder, and some start under the armpit and go down til about the same level as the top of the cuts that make the tail in the back. (I just took a quick look again and noticed that there’s a seam that runs from the neck parralel with shoulder over til about 3-4 inches away from the arm seam, and then runs down to the bottom, and runs about 4-5 inches inside of button along his side, you can see it really well when Horrible leans down to take care of Penny in Act 3)
As for the fold under piece on the front, from what I have been able to glean from the red suit dressing and when Horrible is bent down, it appears to only go over as far as a typically jacket would go over (To the center of the chest) and just goes straight down to meet level with the rest of the coat.
As for the back I’m not sure how to do the effect of the belt along the back, but from what I can tell, it looks like there is just some loose fabric back there and then two buttons just inside of the seam where the belt is hooked, and then plus the 2 “cuts” along the seams (Where the back and the side panels meet).
Um, I “think” the collar goes all the way around, doubling up in the front when it’s all folded and buttoned. And there IS a button on the collar on the right side in line with the others.
Hopefully this helps somebody out there (Well somebody other than me!lol!)
Maul2″

Oh yah and also, does anyone know what kinda fabric the coat is made of? It look kinda heavy but I'm not sure exactly, cause from the looks of it, it looks kinda like corduroy cause it has those kind of vertical stipes on it, but it doesn't look exactly corduroy you know. Anyway I'm just trying to find out how much the fabric would cost to make it on my own!

http://www.newchef.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=36&idproduct=172

This chef's jacket has almost the exact same set up. The buttons could be modified and extra material added to lengthen it maybe?

Anyone made any more progress finding a good coat?  Something that's:

a) not too expensive (under $30 shipped?)

b) modifiable to be as accurate as possible

c) actually available through a retailer

I'm not having much of any luck finding something that fits all 3 of those criteria.

Halloween's really not that far away, and with my boots/goggles/gloves taken care of, it's the last (rather) large piece of the puzzle.

These Dental coats are very close, button sides, long sleeves, collar is right, and length seems right:

http://www.durawear.com.au/show.php?subcategory=140

Too bad they don't have men's sizes.

Did you link to the page you meant to?  There are mens sizes on there, but they're definitely not close . . .   and neither are the womens.  All short-sleeved, and all the mens sizes are waist length.  If I'm gonna pay $80+ (with a minimum order of 2, no less), it's gonna have to be a LOT closer than that.

There's a Renaissance costumer I worked with a few halloween's ago, I was very happy with her work - and not expensive for the custom shirt & vest I ordered.  I may have to look her up, see what she thinks . . .