the hunt goes on

Well obviously my dream coat is out of my price range, but I am now officially obsessed.  I must have a new coat.  Hang with me over the next few weeks while I sort this out, and if anyone else out there is on a similar quest, join me and we can hunt the elusive perfect coat together.  In this preliminary phase of research (yes, I am oh so scientific about it) I'm including coats that range from $100 to $2500.  Think of this as the fantasy phase, where we're really just trying to narrow down what it is we're looking for (is it a pea coat?  a men's coat?  a car coat?  what the hell is a car coat?).

 Big Peacoat from Emerson Fry, $495

More potential dream coats...

meet bruce

It is taking all my willpower today to not post yet again about boots.  I am obsessing and agonizing over some serious boot-purchasing decisions, but I promised this blog would not become Boot Central, and I'm sticking to it.  If I'm still debating tomorrow you may see another boot, but for today, welcome to Obsession #2 for me: hoodies.  You're thinking, how can you be obsessed with hoodies?  Isn't it just a sweatshirt with a hood?  What's the big deal?  Well, no matter how, ahem, mature I get, I still think it's the perfect layering piece under jackets and blazers of all kinds.   And then every once in a while you stumble across one that's really really special.  Meet Bruce.

Bruce from the back is a normal hoody, but in the front he is made up of cascading waves of knit cotton and a zipper that, if you were a turtle, would come in handy indeed.  You can wear the extra fabric over your shoulders as a shawl collar, or over your head as a hood, but it's not a normal hood, it drapes more like a nomad's scarf.  I don't think words can describe it, and I hate the way AllSaints photographs their pieces without models, so in order for you to get a better idea, after the jump you'll find a few lookbook.nu photos of Bruce in action...

allsaints

 adria cropped cardigan

One of the stores I'm most excited about hitting while I'm in nyc is AllSaints Spitalfields.  Last winter when I was here I fell in love with a leather jacket there and am still kicking myself for not getting it.  I do have one of their pirate cardigans and I absolutely love it.  You can tie it a zillion different ways or just leave it open and drapey.  I bought mine five years ago and wore it religiously until it shrunk (Fine.  I shrank it.  Machine washed it warm.  Don't do that.)  but I still wear it all the time in its mini shrunken version for classes and rehearsals.  Maybe I could pick one up that's actually my size.  And hand wash it this time.

pirate cardigan

more lovely allsaints picks after the jump...