Keanu Reeves The Matrix Neo Black Cotton Trench Coat

PRODUCT OVERVIEW

The Matrix was released in 1999, written and directed by the Wachowskis, with Keanu Reeves playing Thomas Anderson, a computer programmer and hacker known online as Neo who discovers that the world around him is a simulated reality. The coat arrives with the character. He spends the first half of the film in an office shirt and ends it in a floor-skimming black coat, and the wardrobe change is the story.

Costume designer Kym Barrett has explained where the shape came from, and it was not menswear. She pulled from Japanese samurai, eighteenth-century Chinese fighters and the cassocks worn by clergy. In her words, “I wanted to find a modern version of something that could move like a cape, so that’s where the coats were born.” The screen coats were built in a lightweight wool blend specifically so they would billow in the bullet time shots, and they were cut with room inside for wires, harnesses and stunt padding.

The coat was never supposed to be heavy. Cotton holds the long straight line through the body, moves when you walk instead of hanging dead, and is wearable across spring and fall rather than only in deep winter. A viscose lining lets it slide on over a jacket without dragging at the sleeves.

The details follow the screen version. The collar stands up on its own with no lapels breaking the line, the front closes with buttons rather than a zip, and the cuffs finish with an open hem so the sleeve falls straight. Two side pockets for hands, one inner pocket for a phone or a wallet.

On sizing, the cut is regular and straight, not slim, because the coat is meant to have some air in it. Take your normal size if you will wear it over a shirt or a light knit, and size up once if you plan to layer a jacket underneath. Length is the part worth checking before you order. It is cut to fall below the knee, so if you are under 5’7″ or over 6’2″ the proportion will read differently on you than in the photos. Send your height and measurements and we will cut it to length for an extra $40.

Wear it with black on black for the full look, or over jeans and boots if you want the shape without the reference.