Welcome to the monthly discussion thread! For the inaugural conversation, let’s talk about coats. I’ll tell you my story if you tell me yours.
Coats have always been my kryptonite. In my old apartment (a literal warehouse space), I had a ten-foot rack filled entirely with coats that I had collected over the years from various second-hand shops. I’m not particularly interested in putting together outfits in the winter, but I am willing to throw on the best, most stand-out coat I can find.
Vintage coats are often heavier, more resilient, and unique.
Especially my favorite one.
I bought this particular coat at Goodwill in Albany, NY. It’s not a great store, but it’s one that I spent hours at in high school and college with my friends. It’s across from a mall, and the parking lot is hard to pull into from the busy street it lives on. It has a wall of broken glasses and records that don’t work. But 15 years ago, the coat rack that lined the back of the store was filled with pieces that I imagine came from the most fabulous older women who weren’t wearing them anymore. Fur, leather, and full-length trenches, all smelled like they had spent 100 years in a box and were priced below $50.
My last year of college, I was going through a tacky cheetah print phase. The vibe I wanted was Debbie Harry performing in downtown New York but what I was giving was a broke college girl who didn’t know how to apply eyeliner. Anyway, one day in the back of the Goodwill, I spotted this orange-hued sleeve with dark brown and black spots. I pulled it off the rack, revealing a long heavy jacket with a wide collar. I looked at the coordinating color on the price tag: Twenty-five dollars. Debbie Harry would wear this, I thought.
Being 20 years old is both wonderful and stupifying. You feel everything but know nothing. The year I bought that jacket, I had no idea who I was despite desperately trying to find her, myself, in everything I did. My hair got blonder than ever. My eyeliner got a little bolder but more precise, and I was trying a persona on for size. I had worn the animal prints, sure, but this jacket, in all its rockstar granny fabulousness, was louder than I’ve ever been and probably will ever be. I guess that’s what I needed at the time. Something that could do the talking for me when I didn’t know what to say.
Sometimes a coat is just a coat - something to keep you warm. Sometimes a coat is something else entirely.
Sustainable clothes are loved clothes - that’s what this is all about. Your turn.
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Thank you for reading!!
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I am a coat gal as well. My fave coat I found for 25 dollars, at a sidewalk sale at one of my favorite vintage stores here in Oakland, CA. It was my first long, oversize coat and my first suede coat with fur panels. It’s still my favorite coat of all time.