I had mixed feelings about this coat at the beginning of the season. It obviously fit. And I've always loved it, but perhaps I have been reading too many style books or something because I struggle with whether it is attractive or appropriate or just dowdy.
I like the elongated double-breasted cut and double breasted jackets have always been good on me. I do love the length, but it is difficult to wear. A shorter coat is easier for the car. It is too long in sloppy weather. I have to hold it up to climb stairs so it would be impossible to wear if I had to take public transportation. I read that long coats make one look dumpy. So what? I love it anyway. I feel glamorous and romantic when I wear it. Do glamorous and romantic go together? Can one be romantic in a tailored double breasted coat?
Now that I think about it, every year I tell myself it is too long, that I should get rid of it, that it is not attractive or practical. And every year I end up wearing it more than I anticipate. After 4 or 5 years it still looks good. Who am I to argue?
Yesterday I put it on because I was wearing a tunic-vest with an asymmetric hem that hung in points below my knees and therefore below the hem of several other coats. This drove me crazy. With this coat the pointy bits were all hidden. With the coat, the look was completely different than without. I liked that.
Most of these items are new. Well most of my wardrobe is new as the old stuff no longer fit, or just looked old, or both.
White turtleneck, Carlisle, is rayon/lycra and several years old.
The striped vest and slim pants were purchased in mid November at a store in Cold Spring called Art to Wear. It was my first solo shopping trip in several years, and I was a bit apprehensive, thinking I wouldn't find much, but I found several pieces and everything I took to the dressing room fit and worked. I've been living in these clothes ever since. Both of these pieces are by a line called Comfy, frankly a name which I would not have sought out as it evokes images of shapeless fleece. But I was wrong. I bought three pieces and I love them all. Truthfully the pants are a bit short on me, but they are slim and warm and work perfectly with boots.
I obsessed about a pair of over-the-knee boots with wrap ties all last year and never bought them. When I saw these in September I realized that this was obviously not just a passing fancy and bought them. I have no regrets.
The earrings are the same ones you saw here.
Obviously I've been fooling myself if I believed my style was "classic".
Comments
18 responses to “What I wore.”
I am of the age where what I like to wear just may not be the “style” of the moment. But if I feel confident and good about what I am wearing then it works.
It looks well made and fits you well. Even if you decide it is too long, you could refashion it to be shorter and probably get another few more years of wear.
Love the boots. I debated on over the knee boots but not sure if I would like them in the end.
There are times when you need a longer coat in spite of what “they” say. That’s a nice looking one, so keep it in rotation.
I hate when the asymmetric hems make toppers impossible! I think it’s a great coat – the line is beautiful and it’s got a rich, conservative vibe 🙂 I do think it’s a smidge too long. I mean, with heels, it might be just right, but I’d take about 3 inches off of it with the flats. BTW, I love the over the knee thing. I keep saying I need to get a pair of those too!
If wearing the coat makes you feel great, and works with the rest of your wardrobe, then in sounds like a keeper to me!
I’m loving tunics and slim pants with boots these days. Those over-the-knee boots are great!
Asymmetric hems are a challenge as is any hem longer than the coat- that takes a very advanced eye to wrangle.
Where I live the coat would look dated and that is a BIG struggle for me as well. Have some long skirts that look good on me but reluctantly (and with nothing better in my closet) I parted with them. I just look out of it and no amount of “well I like it” pep talk disguisesthe fact that the only women I see in them are feeding all the birds out of their handbag. It’s not that I want to look trendy, either, but my skirts made me look like I was clinging to the past.
To me, there is nothing more beautiful than someone with their own interesting style – no matter what their age. I like the coat and find it a nice contrast to the edgy tunic/boot ensemble. I think it really helps that it is a maxi-coat vs. that ’90s mid- to lower-calf length. Now you have me wanting some over-the-knee boots too (I really need to move north!).
Awesome just awesome, you look fab.
Nancy: Thanks
Kristin, I agree that the asymmetric hems are a problem, and I am not sure this is a long term look for me (the top) but it is a now look for me, and that is enough.
I do think the coat is beautiful and perhaps this is one of the reasons I struggle with it. Usually I wear it with very high heels and that probably makes a huge difference in the look. In all the years, this is probably one of the very few times I wore it with flats
Pseu, the topper and slim pants seems to be my look for this season. That might change over time as I am usually a sweater over jeans or slim pants in the winter person. Most of my sweaters are too large though and it will take some time to replace them.
Duchesse, Asymmetric hems are a bit of a challenge and I have ideas as to a jacket but probably will not get to it before I tire of this piece. To my eye, this is the most extreme of the pieces I picked up, and probably therefore the shortest lived. But my goal was to buy clothes I would wear now, and wear them until I needed/wanted something else, and in that sense it was successful.
Now that I am answering your comment I can see a blog post or two there, which I probably thought about last fall but am just now reconsidering.
I think my struggle with the coat is exactly what you describe. I should have said I feared the coat looked “dated” not “dumpy” which are of course, totally different things. Now where I live the coat fits right in and although I am merely 80 miles from NYC, in many ways I am a world away. I gave away all of my longer skirts because of that very dated feeling which made me look and feel older and I suspect the same thing will happen with this coat in time.
As the coat would look dated where you live, so it would in NYC, which tends to be my nearest reference point. I would not wear this coat in NYC, were I still going into the city regularly. I think I have worn it to the city, although not recently, and even then I wore it as an evening coat over a formal dress with a large and dramatic feathered scarf at my neck. The coat had the advantage that the mess from the city streets landed on my coat and not my dress, and I am not of the class that has door to door transportation. There is often a line of women shedding ungainly coats and heavy boots at the various coat checks around Lincoln Center before emerging swan-like in their evening finery. Unfortunately they are often, like myself, women from the suburbs.
It is always tricky, this navigating of my country mouse existence with my not exactly country mouse spirit.
Absolutely love the boots. They are gorgeous!
Do glamorous and romantic go together? I think Duran Duran in their Planet Earth video answer this question with a resounding “yes”.
As you know, I love that coat. I’ve seen you in it, and it’s in no way frumpy.
is this the cashmere coat you mentioned in a recent comment on a post of mine? If so, it would be even more difficult to abandon. . . I’m still loving my long coat, but it’s cut dramatically enough that while I might look extravagant in it, or even loopy, I’m unlikely to look dumpy. Don’t know if that should reconcile me or not, but so far, I still love mine enough not to care whether it’s on trend or not. there’s something so satisfyingly Dr. Zhivago about a long coat, no? (can’t imagine, btw, that you would ever have bought anything that had any frump to it whatsoever — and I don’t think frump gets acquired with time, but rather it’s inherent!)
If this is your only coat, I´d say, sell it. But I know that you have others, so I might just keep it, to be worn as an evening coat, over light party clothes and with high heels.
I really love the coat; it’s elegant and makes you look even taller and slimmer. The entire outfit looks gorgeous
I don’t think it’s dowdy at all. It is dramatic. The question is whether you want to psych up for the drama, if you know what I mean:). If I ever wear something important like that coat, which is rare, I try to make sure that everything else, including jewelry, hair and makeup, is playing at the same volume. Does that make sense?
The tunic is good ‘coz your boots can be seen. But the overcoat is also practical for really bad weather. Coats have a limited use, but they’re still great for such occasions.