You know the concept of the “white whale”? That thing you spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking about, pursuing and trying to get ahold of, for which there is no substitute in your mind but in reality there are lots of things that would be probably just as good if you were actually a rational human being.
Well my white whale is a coat made in 2016 in a particular fabric. It’s the Eidos Chiaia coat in gray herringbone. The coat is perfect and I still want it (so if you know someone who has one in size 52, make that connection for me please).
My brother ribs me for my obsession. He thinks once I get it, assuming some day I do, it can’t possibly live up to my expectations and I won’t be satisfied like I think I will. He’s wrong but I appreciate the perspective.
One of the coats that would honestly be just as good and fill that need for me if I were a rational person is the Kaptain Sunshine Traveller coat. No Man Walks Alone sells it most fall/winter seasons, and the more photos I see of it the more I’m enamored of it. It has returned this season once again in three colorways:
Gray Glen plaid melton | Smokey green melton | Navy blue melton
To be sure, it’s a different overall vibe than the Eidos, though in a similar spirit. It’s sized big and fits big. It’s usually made in melton wool—the same fabric pea coats are traditionally made in—which is stiff, meaning the extra room in the sleeves is necessary. There is debate whether you should size up or take your normal size on Styleforum, with proponents of both. The camel colored version linked above is sized true to size, for reference.
I have not bought one yet because the price tag is high enough I second guess whether a heavy melton coat will get much wear here in Tennessee (especially since I have a medium-heavy-weight Polo Ralph Lauren coat that I love so much).
But also, there’s that part of my irrational brain that says “keep waiting, the white whale is just about to crest again.”
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Currently I’m on the fence on the grey glen plaid traveller. The colorway and pattern is great and all, but one thing that worries me is the fact that it is, “glen plaid”, which kinda pales in versatility compared to other solid colorways. However, the classic camel colorway continues to elude me, I have one too many Navy in my closet, and the smokey green is just too… military. What would you say the benefit of this season’s grey glen plaid is? (If all else fails, I’ll have to take a plunge on the Drake’s iteration of the raglan coat.)
The camel is my favorite, and is likely what I’d buy if I were able to.
That said, you can’t have too much navy, dude. Stop worrying about it.
Gray glen plaid is actually pretty sweet, and I suspect the effect that pattern/color will have on the overall look and feel is to dress it up just a little bit. One of the reasons I liked the gray herringbone fabric of my white whale Chiaia is that exact same reason. I actually owned said coat in brown h-bone, and felt it was a little too casual to dress up with a coat and tie; gray looked good dressed up but no less at home dressed down. The exploded glen plaid on this coat accomplishes a similar feat.
As for the Drake’s coat I wrote about here is indeed another option; it’s so expensive that it’s hard to compare tbh. But with price as no option, I feel the KS coat’s likely a little easier to wear in normal day to day life. That deep pleat on the Drake’s is a little extra in a way that I would personally feel a little subconscious about in public. But, that’s a different threshold for everybody.
It may fit big, but not big enough for me. I need 54 in an overcoat. Not every guy has a 32 inch waist.
Have you bought the coat and found it was constricting in your normal size?
With coats, how it fits in the shoulders, upper back and chest are the key areas, not the waist, tbh.
They don’t even make these in my normal size. The largest size I’ve seen the Traveller listed in is a 42. I’m a big guy, and the clothing options for guys decrease as their size increase.
Argh!! It’s a Japanese brand right? I guess that’s the downside!
I’ve just bagged a discounted KST from a Japanese auction site but am worried it will be too big for me! I’m a very small guy (5ft 7, usually wear a 36S blazer) and got it in a 36S, but the chest measurement seems massive – at 22.4 inches pit to pit, I’m concerned it will drown me! I’ve never seen a size S/36 listed as that measurement before.
I’m hoping for the best/I could get it tailored, but how do you have any thoughts on this?
Getting to this late (sorry!), but have you received it?
The coat is meant to fit big so I’m inclined to say embrace that!