The case for too many coats.

My recent (and obsessive) acquisition of the perfect letterman jacket, fall jacket favorites you can shop RN, ways to gift a coat to someone in need this season.

How many is too many?

I recently counted how many jackets I own and I was startled by my discovery. To my surprise, I own 28 different jackets of various styles and eras. I should have known. Over the years, I’ve had many a conversation with friends, customers and strangers about our personal collection of coats and how our roommates, friends and partners have feelings about it. These low-level judgements that go something like, “How many coats does one person really need?” or “This entire closet is just YOUR coats!” To which us coat collectors respond with a deadpan, “And?”

The question of coat collecting has long perplexed folks who stick to maybe two varieties a season: sport coat and dress coat. A sport coat might be of the puffer coat variety while the dress version could be a wool peacoat. And that might be enough. Coat collectors however could never live on such a meagre diet of options. We long for the temperature to drop below 50 degrees so that we can trod out all of our favorite cold weather coats with wild abandon and all manner of layering.

The necessity of many jackets really speaks to how jackets function with an overall outfit and not all jackets can go with all looks. That keeps us searching and collecting the ones that make our closets feel whole…or so we tell ourselves.

Abandoned items.

The propensity for many coats presents the reality of many pockets into which we hastily stuff our keys, earbuds, debit cards, favorite lip balms and lipsticks, kids snacks and whatever other daily essentials needed for successful living. This creates the never ending conundrum of the displacement of said items. Which coat did I leave my debit card in? I have no life-hack solutions for this problem, I’m simply presenting it as a foible. It’s a minor weakness which us collectors must wear as a badge of honor against any further judgement from those loved ones who must invariably wait for us to find said items before leaving the house. I see you my beloved friend, and I’m sorry, but I’m not giving up my coats.