I am feeling simultaneously very smart and very dim, because of my winter coat. I have TWO winter coats, actually, because one of them looked great when I tried it on but it was very fitted and felt a little snug, and I am now a little larger than I was when I bought it, and it will not zip. So I bought a second coat on a good clearance in my current size, but I bought it online, and it will zip but it does not look good zipped: it was made for someone with somewhat different proportions, so there is plenty of room in the up-top but not so much in the down-below. Why, you ask, do I not get rid of both coats and buy one that fits? It’s because of the despair.
ANYWAY, normally this is not an issue: I am the indoors type, so I rarely need to zip my coat. And on the coldest days, if I DO want to zip my coat, I CAN zip it; it’s just not FLATTERING, or COMFORTABLE. So that’s fine.
However, now we are looking at winter protests. I need the coat zipped, and I need it zipped for a longer period of time, and ideally I need room inside for more layers. I put on my to-do list that it was time to conquer the despair and buy a bigger coat in the right proportions. It’s not as bad, shopping-wise, as shopping for jeans, but it’s pretty bad, and I dreaded it. Plus: it’s January, almost February, and the coat supply will be picked over if not gone entirely.
I fervently wished I had held onto my old coat, the one that fit a decade ago and then became much too big. It was a pretty color; it had a hood; it was flattering and comfortable. I cursed myself for having given into the idea that we shouldn’t keep things that no longer serve us.
This is when I had another thought. I have kept certain of my larger clothes, because we have a barn but no farm and therefore AMPLE storage space, and because I have had opportunities (the pandemic; post-knee-surgery) to be very grateful to my past self for realizing I might not be the same size forever. (It can be Quite Fun to buy smaller clothes; I find it much less exciting to buy larger ones.) Would I have…KEPT the coat? I remembered laundering it before donating it, but maybe I was instead remembering laundering it before storing it.
I made the freezing journey to the barn, and looked at the bins. Two bins are transparent plastic, and I could immediately see that there was no coat inside. The third bin, on the bottom, was opaque plastic and was labeled “t-shirts, flannel, hoodies”—not “coat.” I turned to go back into the house and then on to my dreaded coat-shopping trip—but then turned back, dug out the bottom bin just in case, and looked in it. THE COAT. THE COAT, RIGHT ON TOP.
So I felt very dim (Why did I get rid of the coat? and: I almost went out and bought a new coat!! and: How could I have forgotten I kept the coat?? and: I almost walked away without opening the bin containing the coat!!) AND very smart (I kept the coat! I remembered the coat! I found the coat! I did not waste time and money on a new coat! I can stay home instead of having to go shopping for a coat!).
I am very happy that you have the coat and that it is going to be used for protests and I think there might be some metaphor in there about how the protests are providing some impetus out of a winter coat holding pattern that was fine but you deserve a coat that makes you feel put together and prepared.
I also think that knowing what happened to every piece of clothing you have been responsible for over the past decade or more might be too high of a bar to hold yourself to and you should just focus on the achievement of not giving up due to the coat situation, considering many viable options, actually following through on checking if you still had the coat, and being rewarded for your past good planning & careful storage choices.
I am so happy on your behalf! That sounds like a really great coat. Now I want to see a picture.
I have had iterations of the same coat (a 3/4 length bright red wool insulated one from Bean) for decades. This last year I needed a new one and they weren’t selling the red! Just black, gray, and camel. I was so disappointed. I decided to get a different coat altogether, a puffer coat, and it’s FINE, it FITS, but the zipper is tricky and it isn’t my favorite signature coat. I saved my old one and maybe I’ll just wear it until it’s in rags.
Is it possible you could find another iteration of your coat — your real, red, Bean coat — on ebay? I sometimes have luck with that, when looking for we-don’t-make-that-anymore items I want another of.
That’s a good idea! Maybe someone will be selling exactly what I need!
If you are okay with used, Gem.app searches eBay, Poshmark and Mercari simultaneously.
I find the SECOND I decide I am smaller and get rid of larger clothes my body IMMEDIATELY decides it liked the larger size better. Hanging onto the clothes sucks but it feels like it’s doing me a service.
I concur with the above “remembering what you did with every piece of clothing you have been responsible for in the last decade is a bar too high. “ you have five children and you and, likely, are also responsible for Paul’s clothing. Be excited you did not dump the coat and you found it. Well done, past Swistle!
At some point I bought both wool and silk base layer bottoms and a silk top. And then determined snowboarding /skiing were not the sports for us and it was warmish for years. And never wore any of it. However the current weather and outdoor protests have me very pleased with past me. Even if the wool are too large. I don’t care. No one sees them.
I’m so glad you found the coat! I donated my favorite coat after I moved to a colder state because it was too big and not warm enough. Well, I’ve regretted that ever since! I could have just layered! And of course now it would not be too big, which is the way these things sometimes go.
I too am so glad you found the coat and really, really (so much) appreciate that you are protesting. Thank you. So many thank yous.
And you absolutely need a warm, comfortable, well-fitted coat while you are out there in this cold. No question.
This is a very satisfying story. And I think you are clever and not dim on all accounts. And thank you for protesting.
I love it! I just moved from a warm place to a cold one and I have a long puffer someone gave me but I wanted a wool coat too. I had such a hard time finding one that was semi affordable and mostly wool. They don’t make ‘em like they used to. I can see where an older coat is a better coat these days.
This is the story I needed to read today. YES!
Oh! Glad you found the coat! I bought a big warm coat at Goodwill this year – it was originally from Target. It is a super ugly colour – like a weird gold pea green. My young adult daughter told me not to buy it when I texted her a photo of it from Goodwill. But I don’t even care about the colour because it is warm and fits well and has nice pockets and a hood. I really have never thought too much about how flattering the winter coats look – just if they will zip up and if they are warm. I’m in Wisconsin. I do think the coat ended up at Goodwill because of the colour, because it was in really good shape for being used.
You might be able to dye it if you feel its worth the effort.
Swistle. Just last weekend, I had a moment of panic because I needed dress pants to wear to an event, and I was SURE that said dress pants were too small for my current size, and that I’d gotten rid of them because they were too small. I realized this the night before the event, of course, so I ran to the store and tried on a billion ill-fitting pairs of dress pants until I found One Single Pair that didn’t make me want to fling myself into traffic. Took them home. Went into my closet. Where I found the dress pants, which fit just fine.
Is this the light teal coat with the REMOVABLE FUR around the hood?? I remember when you bought that one!!
IT IS!!
We can’t remember everything; I would focus on the YAY FOUND IT and also the HAVING A COAT without having to go try on and find one that fits, because yeah, no, 1. bin labeling is usually not exhaustive (I have used “etc.” sometimes to indicate that the bin label is not exhaustive) and 2. at least you did not dig out and search through at least 10 boxes of stuff to try to find an old certifying document you unexpectedly needed, only to belatedly realize that the document had been tidily filed on a shelf (this occurred recently in our house).
Protesting in the winter involves more layers than I have ever worn before, since shoveling snow keeps you a lot warmer than staying in one place with a sign. But if a ton of people end up with comfortable and adequately insulative winter clothes out of this, such that they can just Be Outdoors nearly whenever instead of getting stuck inside whenever it is Too Cold, that’s probably a good outcome for physical and mental health as well as national health? Maybe?
Oh my goodness, what a RIDE. I feel like I have had identical experiences, even if I can’t name them right at the moment. I finally bought a sort-of winter coat – I almost never wear one because of the thermo-regulatory issues and peri-menopause, but now and then I do actually need to. The coat is very nice and people compliment me all the time, but I can’t help thinking that if I was a little different I would look better inside the coat. Anyway, the annoying thing was that trying to zip up a long jacket is really annoying – you have to reach all the way down and then zip it all the way up without it getting tangled even though you’re bent over. But my daughter said her coat had enough snaps that she could usually just snap it instead of zipping it. And when I checked, mine does too! So yeah, I feel dumb, but also, score!
The coat! The coat! I have a BELOVED coat that has sometimes fit and sometimes not since I bought it in 2005 (!) and a friend actually took the (tattered, holey, worn) sleeves off and SEWED NEW SLEEVES ON, but the new sleeved were just not as warm … so I bought a new coat. But I have the old one! And even with no barn in sight, I will keep it forever. So GLAD you found your coat!
After much effort, I previously made myself smaller. So I bought a nice zip-up coat in a colour I like very much. And it’s warm enough to go to the car and back. But it needs another layer to make it warm enough for standing around for an hour on the sidewalk.
And another layer no longer fits in between not-quite-as-small me, and the blessed coat.
It has spent this winter in the closet, mostly.
I have been layering really old fleece and rain jackets. And making the effort to be smaller again.
I love a story with a happy ending! I am so glad you have this coat for going to rallies. Layers are key for keeping warm. Consider getting handwarmers as well. They helped me keep all my fingers during the past few rallies.
IT IS A COAT VICTORY!!!!
I recently had a similar experience. Have a Land’s End long puffer coat that I love, but the zipper stopped working. I contacted Lands End but I was out of the return window. I despaired. Was on a trip to Iceland and purchased a beautiful coat that I also love but is not quite as warm. Came home and took the Lands End coat in for a new zipper. the guy gently explained that I needed to have both zipper pulls at the bottom of the coat for it to work. There is nothing wrong with the zipper, just me. I’m relieved but annoyed at myself.
“It’s because of the despair.” I felt that! HARD!
So satisfying to find a missing item! I am wondering these days about storing clothing of different sizes and what to keep. I’ve have ranged up or down four sizes over the last 10 years. There’s not that much storage space for all the sizes!
Right?? Every so often I reevaluate. What I mostly do is keep my FAVORITE items (anything I would mourn if I needed it again), and also a few BASIC items, such as two pairs of jeans and a pair of pajama pants and a few t-shirts, so that I have things to meet a sudden need.