Fabulous vintage suit in immaculate condition!
A very vibrant scarlet Red suit by Mansfield, designed by Frank Russell known as 'The King of Coats' in Britain for 3 decades, with black frogging on the front & waist at the back, and a real black mouton sheepskin fur collar. Fit for a Princess! And indeed Princess Diana was a client of Mansfield. And it has all the romance of bygone years....and Royalty, Imperial times and aristocrats and hussars.
 
I love a coat jacket or in this case a skirt suit, with frogging. Often however vintage ones from the 60s and 70s , the frogging is often damaged. Not so with this beauty she is immaculate! We think from the early 1970s though could be 1960s, and certainly following a trend that began mid 1960s. It has its inspirational roots in a period much longer ago; and from a different culture via many others, though perhaps not necessarily the one with which it is most associated and inspired its 60s & 70s revival.
I would say it is a UK size 8 to 10. Suitable for either. It is a sturdy red wool. 
 
So, I was trying it on and planned to show the cut of the skirt which is lovely as it is A line but not too A line, and down to well below the knee, and put the jacket on my shoulder. I felt like a hussar of old immediately with the bold frogging, on the vibrant red jacket, so got me to thinking about the history of frogging and how Hussars were influential in its spread into mainstream western fashion in the 19th and 20th centuries. 
 
"And the White Knight...is talking backwards...." went 'White Rabbit' by Jefferson Airplane in 1967, a year after the movie Doctor Zhivago was released, which saw a huge influence on fashion. especially with frogging and 'princess' coats. People loved the Romance and intrigue and fashions of the movie set in this dark time of Russian history WWI and the Revolution. The presence of frogging on coats and jackets were, and remain often referred to as 'Cossack' style but "curiouser and curiouser," as Alice in Wonderland says, cossacks rarely wore such. Their traditional costume has pouches across the chest for gunpowder, not, generally frogging. So people are talking backwards when they say they are cossack garb really...and incidentally the Cossack general for Tsar Nicholas II was known as 'The White Knight', the White army being opposed to the Red communist army. Incidentally, Jefferson Airplane's Jorma Kaukonen's grandmother was an emigre to the USA as Jews were being persecuted by some cossacks, so another thing that made me think of the song as my 'Spirit of the Age and garment' piece, even though it predates the suit by a few years. The movie Doctor Zimiga firmly established frogging and fur trim combo as an enduring and endearing look, though it is often rebooted for the fashions of the time, this being early 70s we think.
But, frogging did feature heavily on designs of coats etc in Imperial  Russia, if not so much cossack,  particularly with the military of course, and ill fated Tsar Nicholas own uniform featured it. 
So where did frogging originate and how did it spread globally? Well curiously, Lewis Carroll the author of 'Alice in Wonderland', gives us one of the best travel diary accounts of Russia in his Russian Diary which is about his only trip abroad, in 1867. Where as well as visiting the theatre to see a performance of 'The Hussar's Daughter' , he also visited and was impressed by the colossal World Fair of commerce at Nizhny Novgorod , where he described the multiple nationalities of vendors and buyers in detail in letters to his sister. Chinese are mentioned. ...and this gives us a clue. The fair at Nizhny Novgorod dates back to 1816, and before that the big one was in the 13th century in Kazan Russia. So there is a long tradition of international trade. So it is very possible that frogging found its way to the west via Chinese merchants trading with Russia. Certainly, frogging actually originated likely around the 11th or 12th century Song dynasty. In China it is known as 'Pakou' and of course almost always features on traditional cheongsam dresses.

And while the Hungarians were the first Hussars, dating back to the 16th century, it may have been French Hussars, and, also the Ottoman presence in Egypt where British soldiers would have seen frogging on both, bringing examples on their return to Britain, made the look fashionable. Certainly frogging appeared on Regency capes for both men and women at that time. And, eventually the Hussars of Great Britain adopted the same look, with the shoulder borne 'Attila' fur trim & frogging of the Hungarian, then the French. Hussars. The Ottoman had also been using frogging since the 15th century , with Sultan Selim I pictured wearing frogging. And again, likely via trade with China via the silk road which the Ottoman Empire effectively closed to the west in 1453 .with high taxes, after the fall of Constantinople. Selim I reigned a little later from 1512 to 1520, and expanded the Ottoman into Egypt. Despite the Imperial and Hussar connections, it also appears the first Russian riflemen of the 1th century also had frogging on their coats, so they have a shout to be first in  Europe too along with the Hungarian Hussars.
 
Those French hussars fighting in Napoleon's army were pretty dashing by all accounts and militarily effective, especially in the Egypt campaign where Hussar general Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle was said to have 'fought like a demon'. He was even nicknamed the 'devil' by Spanish guerillas. But if there was a Hussar general to rival him as 'King of the Hussars', it was the Hungarian András Hadik, famed for capture of Berlin 1757 , 50 years before De Lasalle's time. Good movie about him called Hadik btw.  Austrian Queen Maria Theresa sent Hadik to Berlin to humiliate the Prussians. He is still legendary in Budapest . Which btw has the biggest outdoor skating rink in the word, and it was particularly ice skating that frogging and fur appeared on coats during the latter part of the 19th century in fashion.
 
So that just to give you some background into humble frogging! 
Frank Russell of Mansfield also has an interesting story. His career in the rag trade began, being Jewish, as lookout watching for trouble from Oswald Mosely's fascists in the East End of London for his father's tailoring workshop. He was also an amateur boxer when young. He served as a radio operator in WWII and saw action in North Africa Italy and Western Europe. During this time he learned several languages which served him well in his business activities later and would grow Frank Russell into the renowned Mansfield label. By the 1970s he was known as 'The King of Coats'  .

So enjoy this lovely suit, that would be fabulous for a break in a European city with history such as Budapest, a steam train ride,  a ride in a troika or horse and carriage, a winter wedding , a day at the Cheltenham festival,  dinner somewhere special or the theatre, or how special would it be to wear at Christmas? So classy, yet so oozing with period style it is sure to turn heads in approval.