A pelisse was originally a short fur-trimmed jacket which hussar light-cavalry soldiers from the 17th century onwards usually wore hanging loose over the left shoulder, ostensibly to prevent sword cuts. The name also came to refer to a fashionable style of woman's coat-like garment worn in the early-19th century.
Charles Stewart, in hussar uniform with a military pelisse slung over the shoulder, 1812 portrait by Thomas Lawrence
Uniform of French Second Empire Hussar with the characteristic loose-hanging pelisse over-jacket
Woman's fur-lined pelisse from Ackermann's Repository, Nov.1811
Green silk pelisse from La Belle Assemblée, Apr.1817
A hussar was a member of a class of light cavalry, originating in Central Europe (Hungary) during the 15th and 16th centuries. The title and distinctive dress of these horsemen were subsequently widely adopted by light cavalry regiments in European armies during the late 17th and 18th centuries. By the 19th century, hussars were wearing jackets decorated with braid plus shako or busby fur hats and had developed a romanticized image of being dashing and adventurous.
Archduke Stephen of Austria, Palatine of Hungary, in 19th-century Hungarian general's hussar style gala uniform; with characteristic tight dolman jacket, loose-hanging pelisse over-jacket, and busby
Hungarian hussar in the 16th century. Woodcut by Jost Amman
Polish Winged Hussar, painting by Aleksander Orłowski
Hussar of the Magdeburg Hussar Commando (1763, drawing from Richard Knötel, Uniformenkunde, 1893)
