🔥FIRE SALE🔥 No. 7
Can a jacket change the entire direction of your life? Maybe.
Wow, it’s been a while. What have I been doing, you may ask? Stacking cheddar at my [classified] day job that keeps the heat on and fills my coffers full of endangered garments? Yes. Communing with nature upstate with the delicious taste of malus domesticas (apples) and their various fermented byproducts? Yes. Scouring the internet for second-hand clothing? Not so much.
I’m like most sheeple…I love fall fashion. But this year, with global temperatures rising and the never-ending waves of femme-fatale false falls teasing me as if I’m detective Philip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely, I have simply not gathered the strength to reconsider my wardrobe. When people evoke the famous meme “finally fall now I can really start dressin," where the central punchline is the fact that some of the most uninspired dressing comes in autumn, they are expressing the immense potential often lost by going to your comfort zone.
In autumn, Birkenstock boys become Blundstone boys. Leather mini skirts girlies transform into leather pants girlies. What we are truly in danger of during this time of year is the pull to reach for the same jeans, and the same sweater and tie it all together with the same uninspired weatherproof boot. Autumn is the time of year when one’s unofficial uniform begins to emerge. We are in danger of jumping the gun and dressing from a sense of complacency. Holster your Fairisle sweaters and Goretex Merrell Moabs for a few more months.
So, where can we turn to for inspiration? The piece that can offer you the most variety during autumn is, of course, the jacket. I try to steer clear from statement pieces and tend to look for staples that have distinct yet subtle differences (which is a pillar of style philosophy at the 🔥FIRE SALE🔥 editorial engine house). A couple of years ago I purchased the very jacket that Jerry Seinfeld can be seen wearing in the famous parking lot episode of Seinfeld. I admittedly pass over this jacket nearly every season because I am addicted to outwear. Instead, I often go for my Barbour in a well-worn navy for a classic look or my electric periwinkle puffer from Adsum if I’m feeling adventurous. Nevertheless, the ethos of the teal Patagonia jacket is present. Fall does not have to be about settling in. It too, can be about showing out. The pieces I’ve found feel unique but not overly showy – something I was deliberately searching for as I scoured Depop for some deliverance from the mundanity of How Long Gone guy fall.
💣I saw a friend a couple of weekends ago wearing a cropped barn coat from none other than Targét, and I felt inspired. I’ve always loved the creative reimagining of the reworked cropped Barbour coats from Parisian brand Brut Archives, and I feel this John Ashford bomber jacket with massive pockets, and a leather collar is similar and will suit the farmer’s market or the flight deck.
🧹I was in the chore coat capital of the world this past weekend (the Halloween festivities at Fort Greene Park). Parents paraded their incredibly cute bite-sized spidermans, unicorns, and ghosts from craft station to craft station in the same forest green or navy chore coat. Switch it up! This acid-washed piece offers a subtle difference.
🧥Suede is a great option when you are trying to elevate a casual look. The faded dark brown (almost black) jacket with a notch lapel collar evokes images of a casual Winona Ryder red carpet look. This glorious suede duffle coat with faux fur details is giving glamourous Gloria Vanderbilt, and the suede bomber in a beautiful caramel on the far right is giving gory Bruce Willis after a killing spree.
🇬🇧Baracuta jackets (or Harrington jackets) are a stone-cold classic from across the pond. Steve McQueen, James Dean, and English skinheads have lifted this particular style high into the menswear rafters. I find this particular jacket from J. McLaughlin intriguing because of its unique cotton/cashmere liner that gives the jacket a nice accent against the khaki. If you are feeling brave, reverse it for a statement orange.
🌼This Harrington jacket from Ralph Lauren will help you flip the script on fall and introduce some glimmers of spring as the sun sets earlier each day.
🏉When I go back home to Indiana, I love seeing strapping football stars around town in their various varsity jackets. It’s comforting to see that this definitive piece of American sportswear has not been completely replaced by polyester/spandex dri-fit monstrosities and that teens still think that being true to your school and looking like a jock from Rydell High is cool. This jacket is perfectly worn in with no demonstrative signs of degradation. It would probably fetch $750 at RRL.
📚To fully enveloped yourself in the autumn vibes with all its splendor, I leave you with perhaps the most stylish scene in Dead Poet’s Society, where the students of Mr. John Keating (Robin Williams)’s class marry poetry with athletic prowess.