In our daily life, coat is a long garment worn by both men and women, for warmth or fashion. Coats typically have long sleeves and are open down the front, closing by means of buttons, zippers, hook-and-loop fasteners, toggles, a belt, or a combination of some of these. Other possible features include collars,printed labels and shoulder straps.

The Persians, based in what is now Iran, introduced two garments to the history of clothing: trousers and seamed fitted coats, you can see there are bothprinted labels sewing on. Coat is one of the earliest clothing category words in English, attested as far back as the early Middle Ages. See also Clothing terminology. An early use of coat in English is coat of mail, a tunic-like garment of metal rings, usually knee- or mid-calf length.

The medieval and renaissance coat which generally spelled cote by costume historians is a mid-length, sleeved men's outer garment, fitted to the waist and buttoned up the front, with a full skirt in its essentials, not unlike the modern coat. Usually there is lace, satin, printed labels decorated. The coating can be applied in liquid form in many different ways, ranging from manual application via syringe to optically-guided, and automated dispensing equipment. Once applied, the polyurethane liquid flows to the edge of printed labels and stops, hardening into a clear dome. The first layer is the label material. The material can be any print-industry recognized label material (from paper to many forms of plastic). The second layer is the ink. The label can be multiple colors, photo-quality graphics, or simple text. The ink is applied using screen or digital print technology. After the ink has cured (dried), the labels are laser- or die-cut and the waste material between labels removed from the press sheet. The liquid polyurethane material is then applied to the labels on the press sheet and left to cure.

By the eighteenth century, overcoats had begun to supplant capes and cloaks as outer wear, and by the mid-twentieth century the terms jacket and coat became confused for recent styles; the difference in use is still maintained for older garments.