this is a story about the trials and travails of shopping in the big city.
question: how ironic is it that, in the city with perhaps the
best shopping selection in the northern hemisphere, certain "It-items" every season inevitably vanish off the racks seemingly as soon as they hit the sales floor?
the "It-Thing" this season seems to be...*drumroll please*...
the
Barbour classic bedale jacket.
jcrew now sells Barbour for men and women (though the Bedale is essentially a man's jacket starting in size 34 and up). i'm sure that, combined with
its popularity amongst certain UK It-Girls in the past year or two has contributed ten-fold to the shopping frenzy.
now, you ask, why do i, an urbanite, need a jacket that is designed for the rigors of fox-hunting, fly-fishing and horse-riding through the English countryside? very good question. i really don't need a jacket that will keep me protected from thornbushes, this is true.
however, i've been looking for a proper fall/winter coat for some time. and the history,
the legacy behind the jacket really appeals to the nerdly, antiques-roadshow-watching side of me. now, i'm not particularly a coat person. and i do have
a tendency to layer as much as humanly possible underneath my beloved blazers. but ever since i parted with the threadbare brown Thermalite-lined oversize "man coat" i had had since i was in middle school, i'd been feeling that there was a hole in my closet for that perfectly warm, indestructible, weatherproof all-purpose coat.
when i saw
erica's on her blog last year, i loved the look and fit of it and promptly added it to my wishlist.
and that is how i found myself calling the New York Barbour store this morning, hoping they still had a 34 in the olive Sylkoil waxed cotton with signature tartan lining (the fact that i know the exact specifications for this style kind of...scares me). but no! the kind shopwoman informed me that they
had completely sold out and only had 36s or larger, the style had been so popular. who knew that such a humble and utilitarian coat (let's face it, it's kind of the anti-sexy, anti-fashion coat...though that's also why i love it so) could sell like hotcakes in a recession like this?
called the orvis store, jcrew rockefeller center and columbus circle, no luck. the jacket is backordered on jcrew.com until late november!
i finally found one on orvis' website; it is on it's way now and i cannot wait. the frigid and rainy weather that's been plaguing New York since early October has completely broken down any resistance i had to making the Bedale a permanent fixture in my wardrobe.
eesh. but all the effort just to find a quality, well-made jacket in the shopping mecca of the US! sometimes i think the shopping-as-competitive-sport complex in this city is just a bit too much.
some food for thought, though: a phenomenon such as the barbour trend really proves that sooner or later, 'fashion' always circles back to the source - and it's so interesting to trace the trajectory that returns to its humble, authentic workwear roots.
