Capote (garment)

A capote (French: [kapɔt]) or capot (French: [kapo]) is a long wrap-style wool coat with a hood.

From the early days of the North American fur trade, both indigenous peoples and European Canadian settlers fashioned wool blankets into "capotes" as a means of coping with harsh winters.^[1] The garments served as winter outerwear for First Nations, the habitants and voyageurs of New France, the Métis of the Red River Colony, and the British settlers, traders, and trappers of British North America.^[2]

The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) sold capotes, called blanket coats, made out of the company's "point" blankets.^[3] These were sold at HBC trading posts starting the early 18th-century, and were popular among traders for their "wrap" style, which was easy to move and hunt in.^[4]

The Canadian Mackinaw jacket, originally made from HBC blankets,^[5] serves as a functional equivalent of the Hudson's Bay Company blanket coat.^[6] The Hudson's Bay blanket coat served as a template for the Mackinaw jacket.^{[citation needed]}

The English language adopted the French word capote at least as early as 1812.^[7]