Featured Poncho overcoat, Switzerland. What year?

I'm curious about the age of this overcoat. There are stars on the buttons on the back. There are no inscriptions.

 

I'd call it a loden cape. Difficult to date traditional apparel. Here's a 1943 ad for the tailor from the Rivista Militare Ticinese. I don't see a star on the buttons; I see the Swiss cross.

Debora

 

Ditto. I used to have one as a girl, bought in Switzerland.

Ditto.
Bellinzona is a town in Ticino, the Italian speaking part of Switcerland.

 

Reminds me of the coats worn in the movie The Sound of Music when they crossed the mountain to freedom.

 

Loden capes are part of tracht.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loden_cape

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracht

Debora

 

Only one button has an inscription and an emblem. All the others have stars on the back.

 

On my screen, your cape reads as green in the first photographs. In the last photographs, it appears to be gray. Which is it?

Debora

 

Green-gray.

 

This web site identifies that as a World War II Swiss Calvary button. Dunno if that's correct.

https://www.ima-usa.com/products/or...33rd-squadron-dragoons?variant=39719515684933

Debora

 

"At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Switzerland immediately began to mobilize for a possible invasion."
Thank you. This is important information. It's probably the same period. I have a symbol on my emblem that is somehow related to medicine. Maybe it's a military doctor.

 

You are jumping to conclusions. That button may have been used long before World War II. And the symbol on the tailor's label is not the caduceus which is associated with medicine. It's the coiled snake which appears on the crest of Bellinzona.





Debora

 

You must be a police investigator. Thank you.

 

Sherlock Holmes was an important influence on me as a child.

Debora

 

I don't think it was before 1939. Switzerland didn't participate in wars but started preparing for war in 1939. Maybe you have some good arguments?

 

Perhaps you mean "cavalry"?

 

I do! Thanks for the correction!

Debora

 

Could it be that this is not military clothing? And I also noticed that the condition of the fabric is almost perfect. This suggests that it was produced not so long ago.

 

We know from their 1943 print ad that the tailor shop made military uniforms. You might want to do some research to see how long Sartoria Rondi was in business. That would give you a date range.

Debora