Thinking About: Camel Coats

Photo from Master of None. Though I never watched this season of the show, I still find the Francesca character's style quite inspiring. Style Dtour did a lovely roundup post!

In the last two years since I graduated, coats have proven to be my biggest shopping vice. I just can't seem to stop myself from window-shopping for more, and that was the start of the trouble complying with this year's budget. By now, I have a robust collection of coats for all seasons, mostly purchased in the first six months after graduation. Nonetheless, I often find myself struck with the desire for another, this time a camel-colored coat.

I suppose all these coat cravings come because the rest of my work wardrobe, the only clothes I wear five days out of every week, is so static. There's almost no variation to it throughout the year, the same items are used year round, except that the tights and warmer sweaters only come out in winter. I suppose this could lead one to an interest in shoes or handbags instead of coats, but I've never been a shoe person and have realized over time that I'm inclined towards keeping a smaller collection of less fussy and more practical handbags, so coats it is.

Please note that this post contains affiliate links that could result in a commission, typically a few cents, for me if you click. Thank you for your support!

The camel coat is a genre I also shopped for last winter, though my primary coat craving back then was for bright colors, eventually resulting in the purchase of that Ted Baker long wrap coat in oxblood when it went on sale at the end of the season. I didn't see many camel coats with designs I liked back then, only ordering a Calvin Klein single-breasted cashmere-blend style, which was the slightly tweaked, newer version of a design I already had in black and still wear often. I don't love most of the changes they made, including narrowing the lapels and removing the pocket flaps. More recently, I've tried again with the J.Crew Parke Topcoat, though the color wasn't at all what I wanted. Nor should I have been surprised by that, as the shade was called "dark chestnut," which hardly suggests a camel color.

I'm not sure of what design elements I'd want for this type of coat. It'd likely be single-breasted, as that's been my general preference for wool and wool-blend coats that I've tried on or ultimately bought in the last several years. (Double-breasted coats can look very odd on me because I'm on the curvier side, I find they can emphasize my chest more than I like, and the two vertical rows of buttons can seem distorted depending on the spacing between them.)  It probably will have visible buttons and be on the longer side. Outside of that, I really don't know. I'd love to find one with a waist tie like Francesca's in Master of None, but those seem to be a rare feature in the ones available this year.

Most of the camel coat styles I see while online window shopping are a bit boxier, more menswear-inspired. That's fine in theory, but often doesn't actually work on me because I'm so busty. Some of the more androgynous coats hang right, and some just don't, and it's generally not possible to tell upfront which it'll be when online shopping. I almost wonder if I'd end up really wanting the same Ted Baker wrap coat in camel (which Nordstrom stocks, but with no corresponding photo). That would make me feel really silly and extravagant as (a) I already have one in a perfectly lovely color and (b) it is an expensive coat for me.

With the more menswear-inspired styles, there are a few in my more typical price range for coats. There's a Lauren Ralph Lauren reefer coat and a Kristen Blake walking coat that fit the general bill. Just for fun and as an illustration, I've also included a mishmash of additional styles in the widget below, most of them at a price point that's entirely unrealistic for me. You can hover over each item to see the brand and price without clicking.

Do you have any shopping vices that you can't quite tear yourself away from, even if the type of item is already well-represented in your closet? What does your coat collection look like? P.S. I'll probably be doing a lot of shopping-centric posts in the next few weeks, as my mind is rather focused on the task of getting my work wardrobe up to scratch for my new job. Also, er, it helps that I'm back to earning a more biglaw-like salary, though my new position is not in that exact genre.