Fashion Finds: Coat your Wardrobe

It’s me, Carla from De Facto Redhead, back for Week 3 of 2010’s fall-fashion preview. As the weeks have gone by since my first guest blog for Dear Edna, I have been waiting for the weather to turn froid, and while the average overnight temperature has definitely dipped, it has not been even close to cold enough to break out my heavier winter coats. I actually just donated by go-to fancy winter coat, so I don’t really have an outerwear piece that I’m looking forward to sporting this season. Not that I want the coat I gave away, either – it was nine years old! I think I would have screamed if I had to wear it again this season. But on the other hand, I’m now left with an empty spot in my closet where my “statement coat” used to be.

This fall, a bona fide trend that’s all over the pages of every fashion magazine is the aforementioned statement coat. True, your makeup would probably sweat right off your face if you actually wore any of them right now (at least, in the Toronto area), but there’s no harm in doing your research early! My fantasy winter coat is definitely one made entirely of fur, but while I like furry abundance, pelt-shy people might like the smaller quantities of fur adornments that are also prominent this fall, i.e. collars, cuffs, etc. Some people, however, are not into fur, in any quantity, so other features to look for in a “statement coat” are high collars, bright colours, bold prints, big buttons, or long lengths with belted waists (this is a look I also covet, but am convinced I can’t get away with because of my petite height of 5’4”). Stumpy alert! Stumpy alert!

But no matter how much I want to flatter my stature with something svelte, I won’t be dishing out the, oh, $835 Fashion magazine’s Winter 2011 issue recommends spending on a 3.1. Philip Lim leather jacket…for a toddler. Wtf?

Left to right: You've Been Spotted, Modcloth, $69.99; Cottage in the Woods, Modcloth, $129.99;

Fox Fur, Danier, $299.99; Highest Bidder, Modcloth, $199.99; Fast All Hours Fur,  FCUK,  $298; The Aria, Modcloth, $174.99; Big City Blues in Red, Modcloth, $129.99; Cowel Neck Trench, BCBG, $418; First Snow of Season, Modcloth, $69.99; Impressing the Gals, Modcloth, $93.99

I would gladly wear any of the coats above, but I am oddly drawn to the Danier one with the fur collar and ribbed cuffs and hem. It seems tough, and I like it! But if, say, Mod Cloth, BCBG, or FCUK wants to comp me the other little fur-adorned numbers, they could rest assured I would strut the streets and do their coats justice. I’ll just sum up my need for one these coats by quoting an obscure moment in Saved By the Bell history (Season 3, Episode 10), courtesy of Jenny Richter, from the Malibu Sands Beach Club – “Oh, I want, I want, I want!!!”