The One Coat Rule

Buy the coat you will still be wearing in a decade. Then stop buying coats. It is simpler than the industry would like.

A good coat is the most public thing you own. It is what people see first and remember longest, and it is worn more days of the year than almost anything else in the wardrobe.

So I spent more than I wanted to, once, on a coat I intend to be buried in. Wool, a colour that argues with nothing, a cut that will not date.

The expensive thing you keep is cheaper than the cheap things you replace.

Five winters in, it has softened into the best version of itself. I have not thought about buying another coat since, and the relief of that is worth more than the coat.