Winter Coat Anxiety

Almost everyone I know, by which I mean three of my close friends, are suffering from coat anxiety. One ordered two coats online to her parents' house where her mom vetoed one of them for its close resemblance to a black bathrobe. I'm pretty sure another friend has a selfie reserve on her phone of her wearing coats in dressing rooms around the city, while the third had taken to asking strangers on the street where their coats were from before she evidently fell in love with a Burberry quilted number at Bloomingdales and started raising money from family and friends to fund it. I'm no stranger to coat anxiety either -- I'm this close to buying a fourth parka, this time from the J.Crew men's section.

It's like that study with jams. When faced with too many options, people end up not choosing anything. There are too many coats to choose from -- wool, quilted, waxed, fur, plaid, oversize, duffel, snorkel, do I need to continue? Also, prices run DEEP. In an ideal world, I would have an Isabel Marant parka, a Vince blanket coat, and a fuzzy Sandro pea coat, but I don't have the funds nor are there enough days in the winter to truly wear and love each one. I did buy this coat from the Gap last month and a lady, who I presume was suffering from bouts of coat anxiety herself, stopped me on the street to ask where I got it.

What's a gal to do? I haven't really solved my coat anxiety at all, I go each day thinking about a new winter coat I want, and when I do go to Bloomingdales in search of one, I feel simultaneously overwhelmed and discouraged and end up smelling perfumes and trying on sunglasses instead.

Below, some images to fuel your coat anxiety. All images via Pinterest.

The Conference Room Coat

One of the conundrums in which I've often found myself over the past eleven months has been related to the appropriate outerwear (or in this case, innerwear?) for an office building. My first place of full-time employment, that which I entered a mere three weeks after graduation, was a casual work place with a funky air conditioner. When it was 90 degrees outside, it was 30 degrees inside, and when it was 30 degrees outside, well, it was still 30 degrees inside. The air conditioner was broken for the last two weeks that I was working there, and the loft space that our office occupied became one of those dry and stuffy rooms that smells of whichever hot foot idem was last put in the microwave.

As the temperature rises outside, those of us who are proudly among the ranks of the terminally seated are faced with the question of what type of sweater or coat to wear inside during the day. Do we opt for a generic hoodie like the boiz of Silicon Valley (great show, great show), or do we take advantage of freezing corporate temperatures to bust out our faux fur coats? Maybe we just wear an overbearing scarf? A neutral colored pashmina? Not much to belabor on the point and given that I have about 20 minutes to get ready for work and get myself on the C train, I'll leave you to ruminate over this sweater coat from Zara, whose wool (or something like it) material may make it seem like a useless purchase in April, but would make for a great office overcoat.

Disclaimer: The coat used to come in a nice navy, but it appears to have sold out of all but the green and orange shades. Eh.

The Swing Coat

April and May, like their fall counterparts October and November, are tricky months for outerwear. The weather isn't warm enough to forgo a coat, and we want to be prepared should the temperature do a 360 and either rise or drop at the bat of an eye. Fall coats prepare us for winter in that they tend to be wooly or dark colored, while spring coats connote something light and give the warning that warm weather is ahead.

I feel like the above sentences were written much too seriously and in the style of Harper's Bazaar, whose pages are filled with essays that espouse the importance of midi skirts as if they're related to PITME. (That's what Model UN used to refer to peace in the Middle East, duh.)

I told my mom that one of my immediate priorities this month was finding an April coat, to which she responded with a look that asked more or less, "what did I raise?" In the spotlight today is the below coat from J.Crew. I like the idea of trench coats, but much like high heels, they might be too grown-up for me. I don't think I'm mature enough to wear a trench coat and take myself seriously while wearing it. The swing coat below contains what I like about trench coats -- the khaki color, oversize cut, and flap in the back (what do you call that thing?). It also gives off a late 50s/early 60s vibe reminiscent of the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. I went to the J.Crew on Prince Street yesterday to buy it, but the sales associate seemed to think I was crazy for thinking I'd be able to waltz in the store at 6 PM and expect them to have any sizes below 10 left. Sorry, didn't realize trench coat wannabes were in so high demand.

#NYFW: Belted Coats

Okay, my fashion week coverage has been pretty minimal thus far as all I've done is complain about the insanity that has become street style. So, let's talk about da clothes. I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about the jacket plus belt phenomenon, but if the runway shows are any indication of future trends (which, duh, they are) fall/winter is leaning towards the belted jacket rather than the jacket plus belt (there's a sub-tle difference, you guys). Either way, I do love the way a belt cinches an otherwise concealed waist on an oversize coat.

Altuzarra via Style.com

The Row via Style.com

Delpozo via Style.com

10 Crosby Derek Lam via Style.com

The Mid-Winter Coat

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[Disclaimer: below post is extra materialistic. Don't say I didn't warn you.]

The internal dialogue of a shopaholic often goes something like this: "I really need a [insert item of clothing]. Once I get [said item of clothing], I won't buy anything else for another month." But then, after said item of clothing is bought, another comes over the horizon and the whole if-you-give-a-mouse-a-cookie thought process starts up again. It's a vicious cycle of which I'm very much a victim.

I thought I had cured myself of my winter coat conundrum in December. I had a solid three coats in rotation--a black duffle coat, a green fur-lined parka, and a heavy duty arctic parka. While combing through the sale section at Anthropologie last week though, it dawned on me just how vital our coats are to our personas in brutally long New York City winters. Our coat goes everywhere with us--it's our awkward companion when we're at a crowded bar, it sits with us at movies and restaurants, and it touches up against the microbe-infested seats and handrails of mass transit. We get a lotta bang for our buck when it comes to winter coats in New York City, which is why I need a new one.

I thiiinnkk it was in the Look for Less that Stacy and Clinton divided outfits into three categories, one of which was called The Wildcard. I'm taking a similar approach to my mid-winter coat appraisal. Mid-winter is the perfect time to take advantage of various sales and buy the wildcard coat--faux fur, plaid, a cape, whatever--that you first started pining for in October. Chances are that it's anywhere from twenty to seventy percent off now, and with one half of the season behind us, you can wear it into March and it will still be new-ish come next fall.

I did some heavy duty mid-winter coat research yesterday; the results are below.

Scotch & Soda faux fur coat, Band of Outsiders camel coat, Jonathan Simkhai color block wool coat, Sea check mohair wool coat, APC faux fur toggle coat, Rag & Bone Harlow coat