"He affected a certain quiet primness of dress" -- Dr. Watson regarding Holmes in (MUSG)

Holmes' "primness of dress," however, did not stop him from doing such unconventional things as making notes on his shirt cuff (NAVA). Surely the eccentric Holmes gave Mrs. Hudson more than a few headaches.

Tweed Suit

Of his daily wardrobe, we know little except that he sometimes threw on a tweed suit (SCAN) around the house and owned at least one waistcoat (vest) and undoubtedly many, many more. Similarly, he had at least one good frock coat (and a separate "seedy" frock coat if prevailing chronologies regarding the order of NORW and HOUN are to be trusted),

Frock Coat

On the left is an example of a single breasted waistcoat. On the left is a double breasted waistcoat.

For those rainy London days and quiet nights, he had slippers and a variety of his favorite lounging item - dressing gowns (robes) (HOUN). Holmes had a blue dressing gown (TWIS), a purple dressing gown (BLUE), and a mouse-colored dressing gown (BRUC, EMPT). One of his older dressing gowns (either the blue or the purple dressing gown) was later sacrificed to the wax bust of Holmes in EMPT. Some scholars make a plausible claim that the blue and purple dressing gowns were one in the same, and that it faded over the years. But considering the amount of time he spent in dressing gowns, over the course of his long association with Watson, I don't think it's a stretch to imagine he had three separate dressing gowns, one blue, one purple, and one mouse colored robe. On the other hand, we can infer that Holmes was attracted to hues on the color wheel between blue and purple (the closest one might ever get to naming his "favorite color").

Blue Dressing Robe

In addition to slippers, he owned several other pairs of footwear including boots (which were routinely cleaned by either Mrs. Hudson or the maid) (CARD, TWIS, HOUN), some sort of "silent shoes" (CHAS) for sneaking about, and galoshes for rainy weather. To accompany his galoshes in rainy weather, he also wore an overcoat and cravat (which took the place of a scarf).

Pea Jacket

Cooler weather demanded a variety of coats including a pea-jacket (REDH) (no doubt the same pea coat later used to disguise himself as a sailor), a heavy coat (ABBE), an overcoat (NOBL, 3STU), a great coat (CHAS), and an ulster (wore with cravat) (BLUE, STUD ).

Travel also demanded specialized clothing, such as his gray traveling cloak and its close-fitting cloth cap (or ear-flapped traveling cap) (BOSC, SILV ). The "cloth cap" and "traveling cap" are the only references to a deerstalker, the famous hat associated with the great detective. He was also a clean traveler. In HOUN, he has a clean collars brought to him on the Moor everyday.

Deerstalker

In addition to the deerstalker, which he wore only occasionally when traveling, Holmes also had additional gentlemen's hats the he appears to have preferred for London business. What type and form these hats took, we cannot say except bowlers and shorter tophats were in vogue.

MAKEUP & DISGUISES

"It is the first quality of a criminal investigator that he should see through a disguise." -- Holmes (HOUN)

Not only did Holmes have a wardrobe full of Victorian gentleman's clothing, he also collected a variety of costumes so that he could imitate any class or type of person at his convenience. His repertoire included the following:

An Italian priest (with black cassock and hat) (FINA)
A "decrepit" opium smoker (TWIS)
An old man (with a wig of white hair, whiskers, and eyebrows) (SIGN)
A "nonconformist" clergy (with black hat, baggy trousers, white tie) (SCAN)
A sailor (with a pea jacket and a coarse red scarf) (SIGN) His pea jacket was likely taken from his normal wardrobe (see above).
A common loafer's attire (with a red cravat, worn boots, collar, and a seed coat) (BERY)
A shabby groom (with side whiskers, disreputable clothes, and makeup for an inflamed face) (SCAN)
A "rakish young workman" (with a goatee beard) (CHAS)
Red paint to replicate blood (SCAN)

Holmes in the disguise of a "shabby groom"

Holmes in the disguise of a "nonconformist" clergy

Holmes in the disguise of a "common loafer"

Carpetbag

And where might he put these disguises, you ask? In FINA, Holmes makes use of a hand bag and a carpetbag but he also owned a Gladstone Bag that also would have suited this purpose (TWIS).

Gladstone Bag