Several years ago I got a neo-vintage double breasted blazer from Polo Ralph Lauren, which I estimated was probably made sometime around 1993-1994. It had dramatic, wide lapels. In the mid-2010s, they were a revelation to me. I wrote about bringing drama back into clothes a few years later, long after I had sold that blazer, to express how I felt the slim fit era we’ve all been living in for the past 20-ish years doesn’t allow for cloth—the fabric our clothes are made from—to have any sort of expressiveness. There’s no drama to it.
The most expressive and fun part of winter dressing is coats. There are tons cool, expressive types of coats: trucker jackets, suede jackets, bombers, western, waxed cotton jackets, peacoats, shearling, etc. And in the world of tailoring itself are amazing styles as well: polo coats, balmacaans, topcoats, car coats. Mashing those categories together is a fun way to add style—a Barbour jacket worn over a blazer is an eternally stylish combo.
I just bought a house after selling our first house and moving two states away, built in the 1990s. (What it lacks in soul it makes up for in up-to-code electrical, ductwork, plumbing, insulation, and a dry basement, at least for me, the person who had to fix/work on all the bizarre problems in our old 1950s Cape Cod). Anyway, it has a two car garage, meaning I walk out of my warm house and get directly into my relatively warm car (which I don’t have to scrape in the winter anymore), drive to work and walk 30 feet across the parking lot into my office. It sort of makes the whole outerwear thing feel slightly unnecessary.
But I’ll be damned if I stop wearing sweet clothes out of the hyper-utilitarian sense of “cost per wear” or whatever other bean-counter metric someone who loves digits on a spreadsheet more than the enjoyment of the pleasures of life can cook up.
Somewhere, there is a line between dressing to look great, and cosplay. Where that line is will depend on you, and your own circumstances. If you’re putting on a super heavyweight Norwegian shaker knit sweater on a 65°F autumn day, you may need to re-evaluate.
So whether they be tailored, casual or somewhere in between, please make this the season of epic coats.
Below are the coats I own and links to similar ones. I love them all and of course my favorite is the gray herringbone balmacaan to which I have written an ode / love letter to here.
Below that, some photos from last winter Pitti for more inspiration.
Great post. I am struck, even among a collection of very good pics of very elegant people, how many of the coats would benefit by adding between 1 and 3 inches to their length.