No puffa for Mama!

With real winter showing signs of coming, the need for a warm winter coat resurfaces. For years now I have been struggling with the impossible search for the perfect winter coat:

• incredibly warm but also amazingly light on the shoulders; 
• great quality without costing an arm and a leg; 
• rainproof but also elegant; 
• suitable for cycling whilst feminine; 
• sharply tailored and able to accommodate a jacket underneath; 
• interesting but timeless (coats are expensive and need to last beyond one season). 

Needless to say I have not and will never find the ideal candidate. Resigned to the realisation that no single coat can fulfill so many different uses and requirements, I have decided to take a portfolio approach and look for different coats for different functions. I felt inspired by recent articles on the fashion revival of down jackets, from weekend newspapers to fashion magazines.

Down jackets featured in French Elle Magazine (20 November 2009)

I have also noticed very cheerful  brightly coloured mini Michelin women in my neighbourhood, visibly basking in the delicious warmth of their quilted jackets whilst I shiver .  A trip to my old friend Uniqlo seemed to be the answer.

The shop did not disappoint and offered a great choice of quilted jackets. I enthusiastically picked up a couple of long coats and jackets from the rails, strode to the thankfully deserted fitting rooms and tried them on. The "premium down coat" priced £69.99 felt light and warm, a good length for cycling with an attractive, slightly metallic colour.

One small problem: it made me look like a barrel shaped sausage - not a look I try to cultivate.  I moved on to the shorter and possibly more flattering "Down jacket" (£59.99) in a beautiful cobalt blue (not shown on the picture below but I like the purple too).

Putting it on felt like wrapping a deliciously light and comforting pillow around my shoulders. I zipped it up, put my hands in the cleverly slanted pockets and felt good. I took a good look at myself in the mirror and my resolve started to falter slightly. It looked good but quite bright. On the other hand, bright is important in the winter: we need a bit of colour to lighten up the short and gloomy days. It definitely looked good but also quite shiny. Again, shiny can be good: after 40 we should stay away from drab colours that drain often tired faces and bring the mood down. Basically, whist the jacket looked and felt good, it might not be entirely right for me and might go into dangerously "mutton dressed as lamb" territory. I felt I should ask for feedback from trusted sources: my daughters.

On the way to school, I casually broached the subject of quilted jackets. I let it slip that a Uniqlo cobalt blue model seemed a good answer to the sudden cold, something that could even be shared with daughters, especially the middle one who does not own anything comparable and that it would easily fit - she is very tall. I thought the offer of sharing might elicit sympathetic comments. The answer burst out from categorical elder daughter: "You can't do that! The whole school has got that jacket - it is completely wrong for you. It is absolutely targeted at teenagers". Middle daughter feebly tried to interject that she  had actually not seen that many Uniqlo jackets around - I think she liked the idea of sharing the jacket with me. I decided to bite to bullet and accept the unpleasant reality: the well-priced, deliciously comfortable Uniqlo down jacket might just not be for me,  stuck as I am under the scrutiny of dictatorial daughters.

If you are braver than me - or don't have a daughter quite as strict as mine, check out those recommendations from The Times on the best quilted jackets:
The Times on Line
You might also want to try out the Uniqlo jackets for yourself and decide that it actually works for you: Uniqlo website