Buy the coat in October. By November it is someone else's.
A coat is the only thing in this shop I will tell you not to wait on. Last year the typical coat that sold went in about five weeks, as quick as anything here except a white shirt, and it went for around €80. In October and November, outerwear was nearly a quarter of what left the shop. So: October.
Why I say October
Not because of a countdown. Because a coat is one piece in one size, and the person who wants it in November is usually looking at the space where it hung. Blouses come through here in their hundreds. Coats on the rail today: 48.
In the first fortnight of September a suede coat, a brown trench and a wool plaid blazer had already gone. They went before anyone had turned the heating on.
There is also the weather, which is dull but true. The first cold week is when everyone wants a coat at once, and by then the one with your shoulder measurement has been on someone else's back for a fortnight.
What €60 to €90 buys from me
At that price I can promise wool you can feel the weight of. I can promise a lining. I can promise that the hem and the buttons have been looked at, and flat measurements you can hold a tape against.
On the table, that looks like this: a hem with its stitches all present, a button sewn back on with matching thread rather than hanging by two, and a lining that lies flat when the coat is buttoned. Small things. They are the difference between a coat you wear and a coat you mean to fix.
What it cannot buy
I cannot promise a label. I cannot promise an unmarked lining; a coat that has been worn has a lining that says so, at the hem, under the arms, where a bag strap sat. And I cannot promise a second one in your size.
What it also cannot buy is a number of winters. Nobody can promise that about cloth, and anyone who does is selling you the adjective, not the coat.
Three things I check before I pay
First, the shoulder seam against my own. On a coat the shoulder is the fit. The bust can carry a jumper's worth of ease and a sleeve can be dealt with, but a shoulder seam that sits in the wrong place will look borrowed for as long as you own it. The method for checking it flat, and the tolerance I use, are in the measuring post.
Second, the lining, held up to the light. I look at the hem, where it drags, and at the underarm, where it rubs. A lining worn thin there is a coat that has done its winters; it can be relined, but that is a price on top of the price. The six flaws that matter, lining included, are in the hidden-flaws post.
Third, the weight. I pick it up by the collar. A wool coat with weight to it holds its shape on the hanger and on you; a light one moves like a cardigan.
That is not a rule about wool, and the weaves and what each one does are in the wool post. It is a preference, and it is the one I buy on.
This week's coat
On the rail today: 48 coats, median about €61, 16 of them at €90 or more. 73 blazers at about €48. 27 leather and suede jackets and coats, none under €40; if leather is what you want, the tests are in the leather post and the pieces are at vintage leather jackets.
The coat I would point you at this week sits above my band, and it is one of the sixteen: a long dark green wool coat, listed at €104.24. Its listing says 90s, made in the UK, hooded, front buttons, two deep pockets, 124 cm long and 67 cm across the chest measured flat, and that it fits like an oversized EU 46 to 48. Condition, in the listing's words: great vintage condition, no major flaws, with a soft, worn-in feel to the cloth.
Double the 67 and hold it against your own chest before you fall for the colour of that one. If it has gone by the time you read this, you know why I said October.
The wool outerwear is at vintage wool jackets, the blazers and the rest at vintage jackets and blazers, and everything in wool, coats included, at vintage wool. The most recent coats are in new arrivals. If you would rather be told about the next coats than keep checking, the weekly email is where I say it, and the box for it is on the home page.
— Victoria