I had been planning to write about Big Coats today. The optimum length and chic silhouette, most useful colour and smartest fabrics – all that stuff. A Big Coat is a big decision, after all. But I’ve changed my mind. The big debates about the Big Coat can wait until next month. I’m not doing this to be annoying, but rather (I hope) to be useful. Hold your horses, my friends. To every thing there is a season, and the time for the Big Coat has not yet arrived.
The Big Coat gets a lot of fanfare from about mid-August onwards. It takes up a disproportionate amount of space, in every sense, because the slice of winter that is absolutely freezing is much smaller (most years) than the seasons either side, when it is chilly rather than Baltic. In the shoulder seasons, the Big Coat feels seductive first thing in the morning, when both the mercury and your psychological defences are down. But by mid-morning you will be either gently sweating, or lugging it around over your arm. Neither of these looks is chic.
