Notes on Coats

So, it's the season for coat shopping, and thankfully I don't need a new one this year. However, I was thinking about several coat-related issues that often bother me.

Fur-trimmed hoods: This trend has been trickling on far too long in my opinion, and it looks so tacky in most cases. On one hand, you have the fake fur, which gets matted and gnarly really quickly and looks like old shag carpeting from a 70's rec room. On the other hand, real fur. From a real animal. And unless it's a really expensive coat, what kind of animal do you think it's from? Um, woof woof. Not that a dog's life is any more valuable than a mink's, but I just don't think people consider what they are really buying.

Tips for wool coats: You know that tag that's sewn on to the outside of the cuff of some wool coats? Take it off. You aren't supposed to leave it there, proudly proclaiming to the world that this is a "Wool blend coat, exclusively for The Bay". It's a throwback from the days when you might have had your coat tailored and it might have meant something to you to have your tailor sew this inside the coat. Some bolts of expensive fabrics come with tags like these from the woollen mills, so you can have it sewn inside your suit. As if you care. I see people all to often wearing coats with these tags still on the cuffs, and I wish someone would tell them.

Similarly: If the coat has a vent or a pleat at the back, and it's loosely sewn shut with a big X of thread, you can take that stitch out. It's just there so that the pleat doesn't get smooshed in packing and shipping. Unless the coat has some funky topstitching detail all over which makes you think that it might be part of the design, just snip that sucker. Same goes for seemingly functional pockets that are loosely sewn shut.

Now go bundle up in style.