For three years I’ve been trying to get my hands on a gray herringbone Eidos Chiaia coat. I should’ve owned it all this time, but due to a mix up with a friend at the store I was going to buy it in 2016, I ended up with one in brown. The coat was great because it was a raglan balmacaan, but it elevated the style with a cinch waist and applied flap patch pockets like a Polo coat would have. It was knee-length, and made of a mid-weight large herringbone fuzzy cloth that looked like tweed but was soft. It was made in several color ways, but gray was perfect because the color let it dress up pretty easily, but the other details let it dress down just as well. While in brown, I always felt it was too “country” to wear with dressier ensembles.
Anyway, I still am on the lookout for one (if you have a lead on one, size 52, please let me know haha). But in the meantime, I need a coat, particularly for Pitti in three weeks, where my job will be to stand outdoors for 6-8 hours a day photographing guys on the street. But also, I just need something to wear when it’s cold.
My problem is, nothing measures up to the perfection of that Chiaia for what I want out of a topcoat. Usually it’s too technical, like Belstaff or Barbour; or it’s too heavy for realistic wear, like a parka with fur trim, or shearling; or it’s impractical because it’s suede like the glorious Valstarino; or it’s boring like a typical single breasted topcoat you’d get at J.Crew; or it’s expensive like a Polo coat from… Ralph Lauren. I admire and love and maybe even will buy a coat in every single one of those categories at some point as my needs and tastes change, but what I want now is something that will dress up as easily as it does down, is a mid-weight fabric that can layer when it’s freezing but isn’t too hot to wear on milder winter days (the norm here in the South), and is a little different than the typical topcoat you see in any given corporate environment.
Those criteria have ruled out a coat with lapels (lapels feel too dressed up for jeans, with the only possible exception being if it’s in some textured, interesting fabric) but instead has a collar, like a car coat style; and also double breasted coats (which look best buttoned up, thus making them a little fussy as well as warmer to wear).
Enter: the Billy Reid Astor coat. Three years ago, my brother bought one in a superb navy flannel herringbone and introduced the style to me (sometimes I wear it when I’m visiting him). It’s a perennial piece in Reid’s collections, much like his Bond peacoat, so it’s been done in many different fabrics over the years. It’s a 3/4-length coat with a collar instead of lapels, leather trim detail at the back of the collar, and with a ticket pocket. Those details elevate it a little bit, and the fabric selection is what makes it interesting. If you look them up on eBay, they’re pretty easy to find, particularly in a gray faux-donegal-tweed. Originally I was looking for a gray herringbone, which I did end up finding secondhand, but that one turned out to have some damage so I got rid of it. Instead, I picked up one in the faux-donegal, and I like this fabric even better.
It’s a wool-nylon-silk mix that looks like tweed but is far softer. It’s a perfect midweight that will be wearable on the milder winter days; it fits comfortably over a thick sweater or tailored jacket; and the fact that it’s gray elevates it a bit to make it work dressed up. The sleeves are a half-raglan, meaning they’re set-in like a typical jacket, but on the back of the coat the shoulder seam is done raglan-style.
After I started looking at this particular fabric option for this coat more seriously, I discovered it has been used as a wardrobe piece for the character Q, in the most recent Bond film SPECTRE. I even found a fan board for James Bond with a guy looking to sell his.
Billy Reid doesn’t have an Astor coat out this season, but he does have a coat that’s cut on the exact same pattern and differs only in the leather detailing and how the seams are cut, called the Lancaster.
I also discovered while looking for this coat that the sizing has changed in the past couple years. Every season until recently, they were cut with very trim sleeves. It looked great on its own, but with a thick sweater, they would bind up, and forget about putting it on over a sport coat. However, at some point they altered the pattern to loosen up the sleeves and lower the armhole a bit. The way you can tell the difference is the tag style: the slim-sleeve version has a tag with every size printed on the label, with the garment’s specific size circled. The newer versions have only the garment’s specific size printed. This difference actually caused me a bit of a headache as I only had experience with the older model of this coat, and bought a size up accordingly. But it fit huge, with loose sleeves that felt sloppy. Thankfully I was able to flip it and find a size smaller; it’s perfection.
So if you’re looking for a cool coat that dressed up and down easily, has some details that elevate it a bit, and is usually made in interesting fabrics, check out the Billy Reid Astor coat. I recommend it.
Shop the Post
Coat: Billy Reid Astor Coat
Turtleneck: 18 East Trekking Turtleneck (similar via Berg & Berg)
Gloves: Cashmere-lined leather gloves
Trousers: Billy Reid Ashland pant (similar)
Boots: Christian Kimber x Eidos Jodhpurs (similar via Beckett Simonon)
(Help support this site! If you buy stuff through my links, your clicks and purchases earn me a commission from many of the retailers I feature, and it helps me sustain this site—as well as my menswear habit ;-) Thanks!)
