Screw fashion, pass me my coat….

Today I saw a girl walking along the street (with a few male admirers, I must add), she was wearing some hipster jeans (so we are talking a few inches (for my American friends) of midriff exposure) and a tiny short sleeved top (Oh and shoes I guess, I was driving past and didn’t really notice – must have been that blinding flash of white from the exposed skin).

What gets me about this is that it is the middle of winter and it is cold… (yeah, yeah, I know, I am a baby). It reminded me a little of when I was back in school (of which, the aforementioned girl would have been around school age now), where it was sacrilege to wear any form of coat, especially rain, as it didn’t look ‘cool’. I would have turned into a popsicle, rather than be warm and as far as rain was concerned, you could have wrung me out some days. All for the sake of coolness. But things change...

So why is this a continuing trend for the young throughout the ages? I have no idea.

I have two (not one but two!) Wool (and Cashmere, dahhh-lings) coats, a plethora of umbrellas (I seem to loose one, and as they don’t cost much I buy another only to find the old one – I think I have about 5 or 6 now), but alas, still no raincoat – that uncool stigma just hangs on for some of us. But this is more than enough to remain warm (and mostly dry).

Why do I now wear them? Maybe it’s because one of these coats kinda looks cool, I don’t know, my brother (well both of them actually) rag on me about being in the Matrix whenever I wear the full length one, it is black and looks similar (but is wool not leather – leather doesn’t actually keep you warm I have found (unless it’s already hot out and then it’s a sweatfest in leather - ummmmm, maybe that's rubber??). I react one of two ways when this happens, I either throw a ‘kiss my ass’ or similar comeback (usually much more offensive) or do a little Matrix spin, so the coat flares out (making the noise that goes along with it – this goes without saying, a little like pretending to be Darth and Luke duking it out, you must make the light sabre noise or there is no point). Hmmmmm, I am supposed to be an adult woman now, right? Oh well. I think I don’t have enough oestrogen, either that or the fact that I have 2 late teenage (ok Matty is 20 now, but behaves no different, I can assure you) brothers that behave this way and influence my behaviour accordingly. Don’t have brothers, you are missing out!! Anyway I am getting way off track.

The other coat is shorter (just covers my ass) in length and looks ok, I wouldn’t consider it to be cool as such but it is warm and I can wear this in the office as the full length one does look silly here (when I am sitting at my desk anyhow). I guess the main deciding factor is they keep me warm and that’s more important to me now. I did see however, another girl, later in the day who was wearing a coat that looked as though she had killed a bear, buffalo or some kind of brown furry animal and had thrown its hide around her shoulders (fur out), a scary hairy coat, they may be the ‘fashion’ in coats, maybe the first girl just didn’t know, but I’ll pass on the furry coats.....

So what am I babbling on about today? Well I guess the main point of the story is that I will wear clothes that keep me warm rather than clothes that are the in thing, don’t get me wrong I do have winter stuff that looks good, but has minimal to no skin exposure and sometimes even all covered I’ll still wear my coat!

And finally (here is a nasty confession) I have, oh yes, have, left the house wearing my Ugg boots (these are sheepskin boots – I have knee high ones) a pair of track pants – not those noisy ones just plain fleecy lined material (why do they call them a pair I wonder?) and a flano (this is a flannelette shirt, I have a few but the blue plaid one is my fav). I have on every occasion covered a majority of this outfit with my full length coat but you can always see the boots, the coat has a split up the back so generally you can see the pants too and to be perfectly honest the buttons don’t start 'till half way down the chest so you can usually see the shirt too, lucky for the all saving scarf I add to this ensemble.... and if I put on my beanie and gloves..... wow, I am something to behold. But this is a privileged outfit and it doesn’t get out much, I mostly only wear it if I am too lazy to change and we are going for an ice-cream run or to the video store late at night.

So fashion victim? I think not..... Give me my coat I’m going out.

By the way, the title doesn't really fit with the story but I like it and it's going to stay.