Seasonal Needs & Wants: Trench Coat

The trench ranks up there with the most iconic looks of all time, and one of the least susceptible to changing times and fashions:

Personally, I prefer the trench's more utilitarian cousin - the anorak. With its hood and full-on water resistance, I feel it serves my needs better. But I am fully on board with the desire for the classic trench. It is the ultimate uptown look and it beckons.

I've organized  my finds in three categories by price, in a descending order: Dream, Want, Have. Ladies, we are all on some kind of a budget. That does not mean you can't dress well. I firmly believe that craftiness and solid research will make even the tightest budget work. 

Classic Tan Trench:

1) Dream, by Barneys:

Or Burberry, the classic­est trench there is:

2) Want,(still up there), from APC:

3) Have, from Bluefly (an online store that is great for discounted coats, if they got your size!), by Cole Haan:

Classic Black Trench:

An otion I would strongly suggest for those who travel. Black is a much more forgiving color.

1) Dream, by Burberry:

2) Want, by Mackage:

3) Have, by DKNY (again from Bluefly):

Not-so-Classic Trench:

Sometimes, even a classic can be punched up.

Rick Owens, the master of edgy anddark:

Leather sleeves, by Mackage:

Adorably prim:

The Ultimate: A Perfect White Button-Down Shirt

Take a men’s staple and make it your own.

No, this is hardly fashion news – Coco, yeah, the original one, made that principle the foundation of her line. Crisp, simple white shirts have been showing up on ladies ever since, to iconic results:

Even icons need to be updated, ladies. So:
What makes the ultimate white shirt of today?

The determining factors of the shirt are as follows:

Fabric  weight

Cut

Collar

No more and no less.   I strenuously object to chest pockets on women shirts – who with a bust needs that? I also vote for decently opaque color – this is not the garment to get nasty with.

Research:

I could not think of a better place to research this than La Garconne, a NY store that specializes in directional clothing, fashion that is stark and bold in its daring simplicity. The look of the moment for them requires a smaller pointed collar, straight and even boxy fit, light weight fabric – like so:

For me, however, that cut is problematic – you can only wear it loose, slung over a tight pencil skirt, teetering in ski high stilletoes.  Pair it with anything else and you look dowdy, unintentionally so.

Their other offerings, while nice, are too close to a blouse, a whole different species.  As in this:

Blouses can be easier on the wearer than the shirt – they are slouchier, require less posture, less control. But every now and then any career woman needs to exhibit strength, and for that a blouse is sadly insufficient. The ultimate white shirt you don when you need an armor – like a gladiator in a white shirt (Olivia Pope, I’m looking at you!). 

Recommendation:

Ultimate White Shirt:

But what to do for affordable white shirts, you may ask? Uniqlo. As in this one:

De Nimes

Surely there are worse ways for a city to be immortalized rather than partaking of a name of an item of clothing that is ubiquitous to the point of absolute necessity.  Although applied originally to the type of cloth, the word denim has come to be primarily associated with pants. That said, who can forget Britney & Justin in that atrocious head to toe denim?

For the sake of all that is precious to you, please stay away from the Canadian Tuxedo!

Warning heeded, lets venture bravely into the world or denim. NK asked about denim shirts, and seeing as these are early days and one wants to be a responsive blogger, here goes my take. As a side note denim shirts are often referred to by another type of fabric – chambray (colored, smooth and light fabric) and more often than not they are indeed fashioned out of a much lighter weight cloth. 

What makes a perfect denim shirt?

-          Slim fit

-          De-saturated hue

-          ABSOLUTELY no embroidery. Any embellishment on a denim shirt sends it straight into the world of Dallas (in its original iteration)- as illustrated handily by Barneys:

The two things that can vary therefore are button plackets and collar styles. Lets break it down and discuss:

Collars:

Since I cut my hair I’ve been avoiding traditional spread collars -

 - for fear of excessive – for me – gender bending. The aim is to look boyish but not masculine. Even with longer hair, however, I think there is something too American about the traditional collar and personally prefer alternatives. A peter pan collar, when rendered in other fabric can work for that 60s inspired, Twiggy look, but hard to pull off in denim. My preference and recommendation, you ask? A small mandarin collar – for an otherwise almost colar-less look. Somehow, the combination of denim and mandarin just works.

Button plackets:

Now that the collar debate has been settled, the button placket is easy. There are two options: Henley length and full length. Given the collar, I tend to lean towards the half length, resulting in a pull on, slightly blouse-ier cut. I suppose that the contradiction of a workman-like cloth with a dressier cut appeals to me.

And so, a post that originated with a rumination on JCrew ends with the same retailer. Yes, I still think that the best basic denim shirt is to be found there: 

COLLARLESS POPOVER IN INDIGO OXFORD

Pair it with colored jeans (NEVER blue) and your favorite chunky faux cocktail ring and you got yourself a hot little look that you will be able to work anywhere and any time (depending on heel height, bien sur!)

And it is on sale!

P. S. A timely illustration on how denim still can look tacky courtesy of Elle Mag: