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Underground > Art, Fashion & Design >

Bigcosysnugglywintercoatoooh!

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06:56 / 20.10.03

I possess two winter coats. I have an absolutely lovely Burberry duffel coat in very dark blue which is good for both casual and formal situations, and I have a brown bomber-jacket style thingy which is lined with synthetic fur and zips up to the right of the breast and looks a bit like I should be in Flash Gordon.

These two coats are quite adequate and provide me with outerwear for all possible situations.

The problem is, I have fallen in love with a black parka with a grey furry hood.

Should I buy it? Are parkas too last year?

07:56 / 20.10.03

And here's a piccy:

Tryphena Absent

09:09 / 20.10.03

I love parkas, they make people look like giant snuggly teddy bears!!!

*slams hand over mouth and gazes down with shame*

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:13 / 20.10.03

Every home should have one. I kinda became obsessed with mine last spring* because it sort of fell into my possession shortly after I'd finished writing my first Jenny Everywhere story, in which she wears one.

There are only two disadvantages to these coats: a) if you put the hood up, which is great and near-necessary in the iciest depths of winter, then your vision and hearing becomes slightly restricted - this is even worse if you have headphones on, and b) if you have the hood down and are walking for a little bit, then the weight can cause your back to be a little too warm.

But they are great: on a practical level, especially for avoiding that thing of having to pile on many layers and then take them all off when you get inside somewhere else warm. Plus they usually have lots of roomy pockets.

And they're good for several looks: Scooter kid, b-boy/girl, Shifter fanatic...

Goodness Gracious Meme

10:04 / 20.10.03

buyitbuyitbuyit.

Parkas rock. I haven't had one for a while, and am missing mine.

On the 'annoyingly cheap for small girls' front, go to school shops/kids depts. My last parka was totally lush(wicked orange lining/excellent hood), and cost £15 from C&A kids. (tho' my then partner found one for £8 a week later. git. and yes, we had matching parkas

)

11:02 / 20.10.03

Unfortunately, I won't look like the model in the picture. Imagine a fat Terry Christian and tell me if I should still buy it.

11:07 / 20.10.03

The return of 'I've got a really great coat'! Hooray!

You can never have too many winter coats. I love this time of year because there're loads of excellent warm&snuggly clothes in the shops, and one can always (just about) convince oneself that a decent coat is an investment.

I had the classic childhood 'wheeled death' snorkel parka but tend to avoid them now for fear that they're edging into that 'trying to look young' territory - but I see plenty of guys wearing them, and suspect this is more reflective of my own age-related insecurities. I suppose also that, since I generally wear a suit to work I go for more formal/classic overcoats (my lovely soft black Armani is good for at least another year) or, on non school-nights, one of my collection of 'no, honestly, I'm not a fetishist - much' leather coats/jackets.

Buy it. You know it makes sense.

11:10 / 20.10.03

Yes! All big coats are all good, and therefore cannot ever be last year.

Then again, it's very cold where I am, so maybe I'm just projecting my own desire to own / be wearing a parka just now...

11:50 / 20.10.03

I really fucking hate Terry Christian, but nonetheless BUY IT! they are littering the retro/vintage shops in Camden, which seems to be wear everyone buys there clothes so I dont think you can go wrong.

Tryphena Absent

12:02 / 20.10.03

Sax, you'll look far more like a teddy bear than that model who looks stupid in that coat. So you should definitely buy the thing!!

lord nuneaton savage

12:02 / 20.10.03

The parkas and scooters thing is a bit of a myth really. I mean it's very impractical. The amount of times that I'd be riding up to some ridiculous rally in Skegness in the pissing rain, only to arrive, dismount and tip the neatly formed puddle of water that had been growing in my lap all journey down the front of me tonic strides...well I bleedin' ask you. I switched to wearing a Harrington jacket fairly sharpish I can tell you matey.

Goodness Gracious Meme

15:36 / 20.10.03

aha. the Mod speaks!

Sax, sure I've seen a photo of you hereabouts. Doesn't change anything.

buyitbuyitbuyit.

20:06 / 20.10.03

You need it.

I just got a parka for my birthday, a military one, which im slightly ashamed to say, has patches that say "army" and suchlike on them. But hopefully I'll get a rainbow patch soon, and begone with trying to look hard. If i put the hood up, it does actually fall to my chin, which is ideal unless I wish to see, hear or eat.

So once you get your parka (and you will), all you need is a pair of winter boots. dddddmmmmmmms

20:07 / 20.10.03

Although that model looks like the fur has just poked his eye out.

ONLY NICE THINGS

20:31 / 20.10.03

It will surprise nobody that I don't own a parka, although I used to and it was adorable. Couldn't deal with the sense of enclosure, however, as per Flyboy. In general, I don't really feel cold, so I don't need hoods. However, I do love Winter coat action. Just bought a new one - black, wool/cashmere, 3/4 length and my new favourite coat, although when it gets colder my enormous fleece-line leather aviator's coat will be coming out again.

Lovely Winter.

20:50 / 20.10.03

I say go for it as I can't afford one and would like to live vicariously through you.

That flash gordon-type jacket sounds cool as hell though.

08:18 / 21.10.03

Think I prefer the modern parka's with the preposterously furry hoods, rather than the traditional 70s ones. I actually wear the latter quite a lot these days and, disappointingly, I get the impression that it's interpreted (by impassive door staff, usually) as being quite scabby and trampy- as though it's a hand-me-down or all I can afford, rather than as an amusing retro item.

lord nuneaton savage

12:33 / 21.10.03

Ex-mod actually B.I.P. but hello to you...

21:52 / 21.10.03

Now I hate parkas. Ive been dealing with hundreds of shite Hooch shiny moulting parkas, that there's no room for. So come, buy a parka, and get them out of everybodys fucking road.

22:08 / 21.10.03

I'm an ex-Mod too.

lord nuneaton savage

10:08 / 22.10.03

Help is available from ex-mods anonymous. Within two years I had stopped sneering at people who did'nt know the name of the Attack's debut single, could'nt name all the members of the Yardbirds and would'nt know who Johnny Moke was if he stepped on their (two hole) desert boots.
I'm much more affable now...I hope.

Goodness Gracious Meme

14:07 / 23.10.03

*slaps Sax upside the head*

I've just bought a parka. It's obviously all your fault.

However, it *is* delish:

Black, long(ie somewhere between 3/4 and full-length), fleed-lined, with funky pleated lining, good hood with fab furry edging, fitted and fits beautifully (nipped in waist/flares out to the bottom).

And given that it's from (howiloveyou) Primark, a bargain.

But still one i can't really afford. *g*

HAVE YOU BOUGHT THAT COAT YET, SAXY-BOY?

Goodness Gracious Meme

14:37 / 23.10.03

b) if you have the hood down and are walking for a little bit, then the weight can cause your back to be a little too warm.

tch. which is why you get one with a detachable hood.

surrounded by amachoors, honestly.

06:01 / 24.10.03

The parka is on order, BiP. Glad to see you're joining the last gang in town.

09:15 / 24.10.03

Sax, pah, to Parka pictures. I am intrigued to see a picture of the Flash Gordon jacket.

10:29 / 24.10.03

I'm going shopping for a coat tomorrow. I'm tempted to go to Primark and get one the same as BiP, actually. But imagine the horror if we turned up at a Barbemeet in the same coat! Goodness. Plus, what's long on BiP will dust the floor on me, so maybe not.

Goodness Gracious Meme

10:31 / 24.10.03

Ariadne: gettit, it is faaaab? we can wear the boots as well for maximum fashion-faux-pasness...

11:00 / 24.10.03

Ooh, goody. When I get mine I'll come down to a barbemeet and we can look like:

a) A band

b) Terrorists

c) A weird but strangely thrilling sex-cult.

And olulabelle: I've been trying to find a piccy of the Flash Gordon jacket but I can't, so I might have to take one and post it.

19:15 / 24.10.03

ooh, I loooove my new winter coat. It's tweed and perfectly fitted. Most things I buy, the sleeves are too long and have to be rolled up, but the sleeves on this coat stop just at my wrists. My shoulders are narrower than my hips, so sometimes coats don't fit properly in one place if they fit well in the other -- this coat is narrow in the shoulder and wider at the hips. And it's loooooong. There's a gap of maybe three or four inches between the bottom of the coat to my ankles, but it's not too long in a short-person-getting-lost-in-long-coat kind of way, it's long because it was designed to be that long. Like I said, a perfect fit. And unlike a lot of nice wool tweed coats, there isn't a gaping triangle over the chest; the buttons go all the way up to the neck. And it has a glorious red satin lining. 14 bucks from a thrift store, unworn. I actually can't wait to wear it.

I'll prolly end up getting a new parka from H&M when I get back to London, though. I can't live without one.

14:45 / 25.10.03

fou... fourteen bucks?
Well done you!

17:41 / 25.10.03

Success!

Unfortunately my local Primark didn't have the parka, so BiP and I aren't quite twins yet. But after a few hours of wandering round town, I fell in love with a coat from John Lewis. It's a greenish khaki, slim cut, knee length and with a diagonal zip. The collar is all soft and furry (white and brown fur) and it's just gorgeous.

Unfortunately I had the deflating experience of coming home all proud (and already wearing it, cause I couldn't bear not to) only to have the boyf frown. It looks like an army coat, he says (it doesn't) and it's not warm enough. But I *have* warm coats! And it is pretty warm. Silly boy. I like it!

I also got some cool trousers and a gorgeous cowl neck jumper with arms so long I look like an ape. I don't know why that was a selling point, but it was - I love the arms.

14:53 / 27.10.03

Ooh, that does sound like a good new coat, Ariadne.

I too have joined the new-winter-coat brigade, though it's a jacket, really; my old jacket is on its way out and found a rather nice sheepskinny thing in town at the weekend. Picked it up today - looks gorgeous, is lovely in warm, fits brilliantly, and doesn't have a collar per se - just zips up to under the neck and buttons across. Very, very good purchase on my part - though it's shedding all over me which is not the hottest of looks...

14:59 / 27.10.03

My winter coat is a fab Ciro Cittero black number bought an a xmas pressie by the parents a couple of years ago (cos there's no way I could afford it!)

This year, I am contemplating a scarf. Oh yes.
Just don't know if I can get away with it, though...

17:25 / 27.10.03

A scarf???!!!!

Jesus christ, you need tons of scarves. Well, several at least. They're lovely and practical and vary from thin fine woollen things you can bind round your neck to big tea-towel like mothers and thick woolen things. Length varies, too. They're great winter clothing, though, as I discovered today, I just need a scarf to go from cold to entirely overheating...

08:25 / 30.10.03

Yay! BigsnugglywintercoatooohGO! I took delivery of the above parka yesterday, and it's superb. Big, heavy, lovely furry collar, loads of pockets (including a special mobile phone pocket on the inside) and some plastic things in those really thin pockets on the arms which are meant to stop your pen leaking but look like bullets!

I am truly the wasp's nipples now.

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