Outerwear options

A new, real winter coat was one of the first things I bought when I arrived here last year. Not having lived through an East Coast winter in a decade, I went with simple. It is long, black, boring wool, and it got me through the winter. But it only has three buttons, so it flies open in the winds of Lower Manhattan, it's not warm enough for the really cold days, it's not waterproof, and besides, an FG needs options.


The Pastry Chef took pity on me and came coat shopping with me during the Macy's one day sale this weekend. Truly a supreme act of friendship. And we found one that met all the requirements - puffy, but not in the Stay Puft sense, covered zipper, cozy wrists, knee length, water resistant - except price, but we did what we could on that count too.

Before we got to the coat we knew we were buying, we hit a few other stores, and I am now in a conundrum. The off white coat to the right is beautiful. It is shorter than my boring black wool coat, and would be great with pants.



But. There is always a but in these situations. There was a woman at the store also trying on coats, and she was wearing this. This has a gorgeous collar, and a hidden flounce, and it looks so good on - at least it did on her - it looked like a gorgeous party dress.

This was not even on the agenda. And do I really need to quadruple my coat wardrobe in one week? Anyone?