Shopping Smart
Buying a coat: the one purchase worth over-thinking
It goes over everything, it is seen more than anything else you own, and a good one lasts twenty years. It is also where the difference between wool blends and real wool is most consequential.
A coat is the garment other people see most and the one you evaluate least carefully, because it is bought in a hurry when it gets cold.
The fabric
This is where most of the difference lies.
Check the composition. A coat listed as "wool blend" may contain 30 per cent wool and 70 per cent polyester and acrylic. It will be warm enough for a mild winter, will pill permanently at the friction points, and will look tired within two seasons.
Aim for at least 70 per cent wool, and ideally 90 per cent or more. A small proportion of nylon or polyamide adds durability without much cost to the hand.
Melton is a densely woven, heavily fulled wool with a smooth felted surface. It is windproof, water-resistant, extremely durable, and the traditional overcoating for good reason.
Cashmere and cashmere blends are softer and warmer for their weight, and considerably more fragile — they pill, they snag, and a pure cashmere coat is a delicate object.
Tweed and Harris tweed are hard-wearing, water-resistant, textured, and warm.
Camel hair is soft and warm and marks easily.
Weight matters. Serious overcoating runs 20–30 oz. Anything under about 16 oz is a lightweight coat regardless of what it is made of.
Hold the fabric up to the light. Good overcoating is dense and opaque. Rub it briskly between your palms for fifteen seconds — if fibres start to ball immediately, it will pill. Feel the weight by holding the coat on one finger by the collar; a good wool coat has real heft, and that heft is what makes it hang properly.
The fit, with layers
The commonest coat-buying error is trying it on over a t-shirt in a warm shop.
Try it on over what you will wear underneath — a jumper, a jacket if you wear one. A coat that fits perfectly over a shirt will be too tight over a suit, and a coat too tight over a suit pulls at the button and destroys the line.
Shoulders should sit slightly wider than a jacket's, because a coat goes over tailoring. The seam should still fall at or just past the edge of your shoulder.
Sleeves should cover the jacket sleeve entirely and reach the base of the thumb.
Length is a proportion decision. Below the knee is traditional and formal and suits taller frames. Just above the knee is versatile. Mid-thigh is casual. Shorter reads as a jacket rather than a coat.
A practical consideration: a coat that ends above the seat leaves you cold sitting on a bench or a bus, and a coat that ends below mid-calf catches on stairs and gets muddy.
Movement. Fasten it, cross your arms, reach forward as if driving, sit down. A coat that pulls in any of these is too small, and the vent should hang closed when you stand.
Construction to check
The lining. Full lining is warmer and helps the coat slide over clothing. Cupro and viscose linings breathe better than polyester. Check the stitching is neat and the lining is not pulling.
A vent or pleat. A centre vent or an inverted box pleat at the back allows movement and is a sign of a properly considered pattern.
The collar. Should sit flat against the neck with no gap. A collar that can be turned up in bad weather is worth having, and a coat with an under-collar in felt is a mark of quality.
Buttons. Horn or corozo rather than plastic. Sewn with a shank. Check that spare buttons are supplied.
Pockets. Deep enough for hands. Reinforced at the corners. Welt pockets are dressier, patch pockets more casual.
Inlay. Check inside the side seams for spare fabric that would allow letting out later.
Which style
Overcoat or topcoat — the standard, single or double breasted, knee length or below. The most formal and the most versatile over tailoring.
Chesterfield — a formal overcoat, frequently with a velvet collar.
Covert coat — shorter, in a distinctive twill, with rows of stitching at the cuff and hem.
Trench — cotton gabardine, belted, water-resistant rather than warm. A raincoat rather than a winter coat.
Peacoat — short, double-breasted, heavy melton, naval origin. Casual to smart casual.
Duffle — toggles and a hood, casual, warm.
Parka or down — for genuine cold. Warmer than any wool coat and considerably less formal.
Care
Brush it. A clothes brush after each few wears removes surface dirt and lifts the nap, and it does more for the coat's appearance than anything else.
Use a wide wooden hanger with shaped shoulders. Wire hangers distort the shoulder line permanently.
Dry clean rarely — once a season at most. Spot clean and brush between times.
Store over summer clean and in a breathable cotton cover, never plastic, with cedar or lavender against moths. Moths eat wool and a coat stored dirty is a target, since they are attracted to perspiration and food residue.
